Vision: A Moonlight story
by Donnamour1969
Summary: 15th in my post-"Sonata" series. Beth is blind, and Mick struggles to help her any way he can. 15th story in my post-"Sonata" series. Alternating POV's. Rated T/M for sexual content,language,blood play. No copyright infringement intended.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm so excited to be back writing for "Moonlight!" I did have fun over on "The Mentalist" board, and will revisit there again. If you are new to my "Moonlight" series, you can start with this one, and I'll try to put in enough back info for you to follow along. This is my fifteenth story in the series, however, so you can go back and start with "Behind Closed Doors" if you want the entire experience.

So, a brief recap. This story takes place about two years after "Sonata," the last episode of the series. Mick and Beth are together and engaged. Josef and Simone are recently married, and Simone is now a vampire. Beth fell down icy stairs in a foiled kidnapping attempt of Simone, suffered brain damage and blindness. This story is set three months after that attack. I know, I know. Sounds like a soap opera. I hope you like it anyway.

Chapter 1

BETH

It didn't matter that I couldn't see the caller ID on my cell phone; I recognized his voice immediately. _Josef_. He'd been calling me nearly every day since I'd settled back into my apartment, trying in his own way to keep my spirits up, to prevent me from falling into depression. He thought he could accomplish this by telling me extremely inappropriate, politically incorrect blind jokes. On many levels, it was actually working.

"So a blind guy walks into a grocery store," he began without preamble. "And he starts swinging around his seeing-eye dog by the leash. And the dog's knocking stuff off shelves; other shoppers are ducking in terror. Then the manager comes up to the guy. 'May I help you?' he asks indignantly." Josef paused for effect. "'No thanks,' says the blind man, 'I'm just lookin' around.'"

I burst out laughing, feeling a little guilty to find amusement in disability, even though it was one I currently shared. "That was really dumb, Josef," I said, still laughing.

"I know, that one was on the corny side. I'll have another Helen Keller for you tomorrow."

"Please, don't. I feel guiltiest when I laugh at those." I rubbed the back of my head absently. I was plagued with daily headaches since my fall down the stairs, and some days were better than others. This, unfortunately, was a bad day.

There was a momentary silence, then: "So how are you today, Blondie? Keeping that stubborn chin up?"

I sighed. "Trying. Mick's still badgering me to move back in with him. I mean, when we first got back to LA, it was good. I needed someone to take care of me. But now, I need to find a way to make it on my own. He's having a hard time understanding that."

"Don't be too hard on him, Beth. If I were him, and Simone were you, I'd be taking care of her whether she wanted me to or not. But I get where you're coming from. Familiar surroundings probably makes it a little easier, gives you confidence. And you are nothing if not independent. Probably your worst trait, if I may say so."

"Like I could stop you…" I said, smirking into the phone.

We'd come a long way, Josef and I. From his short-lived obsession with me to standing up for him and Simone at their wedding, we'd settled at last in a good place. We understood each other. He was like my much older brother, taunting and cajoling me into keeping my sanity, whether I wanted him to or not. I was like his best friend's little sister in his mind, and he felt it was his obligation to protect me, even if it meant insulting the entire population of the visually impaired. I didn't think he was telling Mick about his daily calls to me, and I hadn't mentioned it to Mick either, fearing he would think that it meant something it most assuredly did not.

Josef was feeling guilty about my blindness. He blamed himself for causing Elise Walker's psychotic break which led to my accident. Mick blamed him too, but had forgiven him, having already been down that road of casting off his best friend. Neither of them was willing to go through that again; it's a wonder they'd both survived it the first time. As for me, I blamed Elise Walker, and she was currently paying for it in a mental hospital in Lake Tahoe. Just thinking about Simone's mother made my head throb even more. I reached for a bottle of pain killers.

"Okay, then, Buzzwire. Go back to your moping and self-pity. I'll call back tomorrow for your daily pep talk."

"Thanks, Josef. Really. Your calls are one of the highlights of my day."

"Naturally." But I heard the smile in his voice as he hung up.

MICK

Josef's secretary waved me on past and I tapped lightly on his door before entering. He was just hanging up the phone.

"Mick, always a pleasure," said my best friend, rising to his feet. "I haven't seen you in a few days. How are things?" He went to the wet bar and poured us both a drink.

"Things, suck, thank you. You know, I've taken Beth to ten doctors in the last two months. _Ten._ Every one of them says her blindness is inoperable. Oh, except this one guy that wanted to try some experimental nano-implant. No way is he using Beth as his personal guinea pig."

I took the proffered drink gratefully, and sat heavily in a leather chair, taking a fortifying gulp. The burn as it went down was somehow comforting.

"My offer is still out there to whack the quacks…"he said, joining me in a chair opposite mine.

"As tempting as that is," I replied, "I think they've all had good intentions. These guys are the experts in their fields, Josef. The best your money can buy, remember? It's been three months since the accident, and she hasn't shown any signs of improvement. And have I mentioned how much I hate that Beth has moved back to her place? I spend most of my nights and parts of the days I can sitting in my car outside her condo on the off chance she might need my help. Simone does her grocery shopping—she won't even let me help with that. Says Simone still remembers what human women like to eat. She has a neighbor do her laundry, and Carrie comes by to help her clean her place once a week. I'm completely extraneous."

I washed down my diatribe with another drink of whiskey, the frustration of it all starting to overwhelm me.

"I'm sure that's not true," he ventured. "I mean, there are some _duties_ Simone and Carrie just can't perform, seeing as they lack certain equipment, right? Well, they could improvise, I guess, but I didn't think Beth was into that sort of thing…"

"Huh?" I looked at him in confusion, before his not-so-subtle implications sank in. "As usual, Josef, none of your business."

He regarded me a moment, then rightly surmised what I refused to tell him. "You and the blonde haven't been backin' up the old hard drive lately, eh? What's up with that?"

I sighed. I knew I shouldn't even try to keep anything from him, the old busybody. "Well, it's pretty difficult when your girlfriend has a perpetual headache, and I do mean literally."

"The doctors say it's dangerous?"

"No. I _did_ ask, without her knowing, of course. Now, I just feel like I'd be pressuring her. And really, who wants to have sex if you have a headache? I don't think she's lying to me. Do you?"

"Mick, the only way _I _wouldn't have sex is if my dick suddenly fell off. Now, if Beth's parts are still intact, she should be raring to go. It must be in her head, if you'll pardon the pun."

"What could she possibly be afraid of? I wouldn't have to drink from her. I can be gentle. She knows how much I love her. What would you do?"

He smirked. "Well I'd seduce her, of course. You'd have to be very subtle; ease her into it. Reassure her every step of the way. You know, act like you genuinely care about her feelings."

"Josef, I _do_ genuinely care about her feelings."

"Then it should make it easier than I predicted. Come on, Romeo, I know you have it in you. I frankly think it would do you both a world of good. Three months without sex—you must be about ready to explode by now."

I laughed. "I've had dry spells longer than that." But I wasn't about to tell him that Beth had certainly seen to my needs a time or two over the past few months. But being with her completely, joined to her, was a pleasure, _a need_ that I was sorely missing. It was ironic that we were back to square one. We weren't having sex because I was once again afraid to hurt her.

"Well, that's damn well a _drought_ for me," Josef was saying. "You two need to get right back on that horse and start riding."

"Nice imagery. You really don't have to worry about my sex life, Josef."

"Oh, but I do. I worry about every aspect of your life, my friend. But how is Beth, really? Is she getting out of the house? Contemplating getting back to work?"

"No and no. While I wouldn't quite say she was depressed exactly, she does seem reluctant to tear herself from that apartment. Talbot came by to visit her last week. He's willing to make some adjustments so that she could continue to work in the DA's office in some capacity or other. I'm not sure Beth is ready for that. She's lost something along with her sight. She's lost her confidence, her drive. She's still my Beth, but she seems fragile and scared. I hate this, Josef. I feel like she's slipping away from me and there's nothing I can do to get her back."

Josef was quiet a minute, and I knew he was feeling guilty again. I'd forgiven Josef for his part in Beth's fall, but I could tell he hadn't forgiven himself. _Welcome to my world._ But Josef didn't like to dwell on negative things, so I could almost see his mind switching gears.

"So, what is she doing with herself?"

I sighed. "She listens to the radio a lot. Says she can't stand to have the TV on—only reminds her she can't see. And she's been listening to a lot of audio books. Catching up on the classics, she says. Right now, she's working her way through _The Complete Jane Austen. _If I hear one more British accent spouting undying love, I'll stake myself."

Josef grinned. "Awww…Jane Austen. I had fun _working my way through her._ Nineteenth century ladies were such a delightful contradiction."

I looked at him, trying to discern if he was bullshitting me. He'd been around four-hundred years and I know he'd met a lot of historical figures. But Jane Austen? Seriously?

"You're kidding me, right?" I said skeptically.

He stayed straight-faced for about ten seconds, then chuckled at my expression. "No, I never corrupted Jane Austen's sense or sensibility. I did meet her, however. Nice girl. A little too self-righteous for my taste, though. But it's true what I said about women of that time. All prim and proper on the outside; hellcats in the bedroom. Mmmmhmmm." His eyes went glossy with remembrance. "The best hand job I ever had was from a first-season miss in my box at Covent Garden in London. Ophelia wasn't the only one hitting the high notes that night, I can tell you. When her mama got back from the ladies' retiring room, she thought I was extremely rude for being so quiet. Actually, I was just catatonic."

We grinned at each other, and I rose to leave.

"Well, thanks for the encouragement, buddy," I told him.

"My pleasure. And Mick…don't worry so much about Beth. I'm no shrink, but I'm sure you realize she must be grieving for what she's lost. And we've still got Europe to conquer in our quest for a doctor."

"Yeah. I haven't given up hope, yet. I just have to help keep Beth encouraged. I think I'll head over there now. I'm sure she'd love to hear your Jane Austen story."

"Ha. I'm sure. I know it cheered me up just telling it."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thirty minutes later, I pulled up to the Victorian-style condo unit that was Beth's home. I never got over the feeling of anticipation I had right before I saw her. I felt jittery, nervous, excited and overwhelmingly happy that I would soon be holding her, kissing her. We'd been together two years, and I still felt the same way every time I was about to see her.

I smiled to myself and walked up the front steps, then to the single flight of stairs that led up to her apartment. Halfway down the hall to her door, I smelled it: blood. Beth's blood. I ran the rest of the way, then punched in the number on the key pad of the new security system I'd installed when she'd moved back to her apartment. I couldn't hear Beth's heartbeat through the door as I usually could. I felt myself panicking as I screwed up the number order and had to start again. Finally, the lock beeped its acceptance and I turned the doorknob. The smell of her blood was overwhelming and drew me unerringly to her living room.

"Beth!"

It was the most horrendous sight I'd ever seen. She was sprawled on the floor as if she'd fallen there, her blonde hair like a golden halo around her pale face. Blood flowed slowly from her nose, her ears and from the corner of her mouth. I couldn't detect her pulse or her breath as I stood in shock, everything taking on a surreal tinge before I finally shook myself awake and sprang into action.

I dropped to my knees beside her, laying my head on her chest to listen. There it was. One faint pound of her heart. I heard the slight expansion of her lungs as she took the shallowest of breaths. She was alive, but barely. I should have been giving her CPR, but I had no breath of my own to give her. I reached into my pocket for my phone, thinking that I should be calling 911, but I realized that she likely only had minutes to live, that help would be too late, and I wouldn't be able to get her to the hospital in time myself, even with my superhuman speed. She was dying, and all I could do was sit there and let her. I pulled her into my arms.

"Beth," I said in anguish.

Whatever had caused this, I knew, from my experience as an Army medic, it was located in her brain. An aneurism most likely, probably brought on by her recent head injury. She was bleeding out into her brain, and I couldn't help her, couldn't do anything but hold her and cry.

_She told me that she could see herself changing her mind about wanting to be turned…_

The echo of a conversation I'd had with Simone a few months ago in Beth's hospital room reverberated in my mind. I had been prepared to attempt to turn her in the hospital if she hadn't come out of her coma. I could try to turn her now. I didn't know if this would work, given the state of her body. To change someone to a vampire, the sire was supposed to drink from the victim until their heartbeat was barely discernable, and then make them drink the sire's vampire blood. If I attempted to drain her of her blood, she would be dead long before she was even partly drained. I wouldn't know when to stop. Could I turn someone who was already dead? Would it work, or would she end up in some vegetative state like Sarah Whitley had? I honestly didn't know. The seconds were ticking by, and I had to decide before all hope was lost.

The answer crystallized in my mind, and I brought her limp neck to my mouth, willing my fangs to extend before I slipped them gently into her soft skin. Her blood filled my mouth, its rare type the sweetest blood I'd ever tasted, but this time I had to force myself not to choke on it. I'd had Beth's blood in my mouth when she saved me once in a hot desert. I'd tasted it many times in the sweet aftermath of our lovemaking. While I knew there was the possibility this day would come, that I would be able to drink my fill of her and make her mine completely and irrevocably, this was not the way I'd ever imagined it would happen. Instead of elation at the ceremonial feel of her turning, I felt sick with fear and shock.

I could no longer detect any signs of life from her, but I drank a little more. There was something in a vampire's bite, maybe a venom, maybe some sort of immobilizer that was necessary in the turning process, and I had no idea how much would be required in her system before I could expose her to the taste of my own blood. I relied on my instincts and stopped abruptly, trying not to think about the fact that there was no going back now. Beth was truly dead in my arms. I had killed her, or, at the very least, sped the process along.

Acting quickly now, I bit into my forearm, opening a vein so that my blood began to flow in a slow stream. I lay her gently on the carpet, pulling down on her slack jaw to open her mouth to receive my offering. As the drops disappeared into her mouth, I prayed harder than I ever had in my life.

_Please, baby. Drink. Drink. Drink._

Half a minute elapsed with no reaction, no instinctual swallowing of the blood that dripped into Beth's lifeless body. How long should I do this before giving her up for truly dead? I'd turned one other person, and it had been a mindless and awkward process by the bumbling fledgling I had once been. This was an entirely different situation, fraught with too much emotion, too much fear. Almost too much for me to bear. After another minute, I slumped to the floor, removing my arm away from her face. She was gone. I was sure I'd given her more than enough blood to change her.

Numbly, I sat back against her couch, the one where we'd first made love so many months before. I closed my eyes, letting the blood from my arm drip heedlessly to the floor. I began sobbing with deep, wracking gulps that felt like they were ripping the soul from my body. I made myself look at her, the ghastly red of our mixed blood on her lips and smeared on her cheeks. I gathered her against me again, crying into her rose-scented hair, contemplating slitting my own throat, or walking into the desert sun until I dropped and died a slow death. That's what the rest of my half-life would be without her—a slow, endless death.

I took her left hand in mine, feeling the engagement ring she wore openly now that Josef and Simone were happily married. I'd put it on her finger in the hospital when I'd realized that life was short, at least for humans, and that I wanted her to be bound to me, even if we only had a few short years together. I didn't think we'd only have a few short months. And we'd wasted them on hunting for her cure instead of marrying and enjoying what time we were given.

In the midst of my anguish, a new scent suddenly assaulted my nostrils. The scent of another vampire. Like a butterfly quickening to emerge from its cocoon, the dead woman in my arms began to move. My eyes flew open and I held her away from me so I could see if it was just my imagination overtaking me, my overwrought mind playing a sick joke. But no, it was her! It was real!

"Beth?" I said to her still closed eyes. "Sweetheart, are you with me?"

She made a little noise in her throat. I shook her a little. "Beth?"

"Mick," she muttered thickly. And then my butterfly opened her silvery eyes.

TBC

A/N: This chapter was designed to show how tenuous life is, how tragedy can strike quickly and without warning. Please let me know if you like this beginning. I thought I'd start out with a nice cliffie.

Also, my apologies if anyone was offended by the blind joke. Remember, it was told by Josef, not known for his political correctness. Please don't shoot the messenger.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I seemed to have shaken things up a little with that first chapter! Thanks so much for the warm welcome back, especially through all the kind reviews. This next chapter is a little on the angsty side. I don't like writing that kind of thing very often, but I think it was necessary, given the situation.

Chapter 2

MICK

"Colors," Beth murmured. "So many colors…"

I picked her up and lay her on the couch, her eyes wide open, staring up at me. My mind was racing with jumbled thoughts of fear, of hope, of gratitude that she still spoke, still existed in this world. What she had said suddenly penetrated my dazed mind.

"Beth, honey. Are you…_seeing_?"

I waved my hand before her silver gaze, and her eyes tracked it. "You saw my hand, didn't you?"

"Yes…it's…orange...and dark blue."

"Huh? What do you mean?" She must be still out of it, some sort of reaction to her sudden turning, but it was obvious she was seeing something. _My God, had I healed her?_

"I'm hungry," she said in surprise, and I saw her fangs elongating beneath her top lip. She reached up her hand jerkily to touch her mouth, gasping at what she felt. "What's happening to me?" she asked fearfully, her words awkward around her new teeth.

My eyes filled again with tears. I thought the hard part had been the actual turning, feeling her lifeblood draining and mixing with mine. Now, confronted with telling her what I had done to her, a lump formed in my throat and I struggled to find the right way to say that she was now a monster like me, that I had taken her life and given her this. But my vampire blood was flowing through her veins now, and she couldn't wait for me to speak. She pushed past me, running to the bathroom. Fearing the worst, I followed after her.

She looked in the mirror, her eyes fascinated with the new paleness of her irises, of her skin. She leaned in closer, not seeming to recognize this strange, blood-smeared face in the mirror. She opened her mouth experimentally, then a horrified gasp hissed through her fangs, and her hand flew up to cover them.

"I'm a…what the hell have you done?" Her eyes flew to mine in the mirror. "Why am I surrounded by red? Dear God, you turned me! What happened? And why am I so hungry?"

Her questions and exclamations tumbled over one another, and I finally shook myself out of my shock. I turned her from the mirror to look at me, my hands on her upper arms.

"Beth, listen to me. I found you near dead in your living room. I—I saw no other way to save you. I couldn't let you go. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I pulled her into my arms, but she stood there stiffly. At the same time, I could feel the energy coursing through her body. "I need to get you something to eat," I told her. I pulled away and grabbed her hand, not wanting to leave her by herself. For a moment, she wouldn't budge, and I was taken by surprise by her new strength.

"Beth, please. You need to eat." I pulled her hand again, and this time she followed. I hoped to God she still had blood in her fridge, kept there for me or other visiting vamp friends. I found two bags of O neg in the vegetable keeper. At the sight of it, her eyes brightened in a strange mixture of anticipation and fear.

"No. I don't want it. How can I possibly drink that stuff? I'm gonna be sick."

"You _will_ be if you don't drink this. It's what your body needs, now. Let me warm it. It will taste better to you that way."

Memories assailed me of my first hours as a vampire, of Coraline forcing me to drink from a frightened young woman. I'd drained her dry, killing her in a matter of minutes. I could spare Beth that new pain, but I was going to need a lot more blood.

I poured the contents of one bag into a mug, then put it in the microwave. I turned to her. She was standing still before me, looking around her own kitchen as if she didn't know where she was.

"Beth? Are you alright?" It was an inane question, I know, but I was at a loss as to how to read her.

"I—I don't know. I feel so strange. You said…you said I was dead?"

I sighed. I could talk facts. Facts were easy. Emotions were another matter. "You were _almost_ dead. Your pulse was so weak, I didn't think help could arrive on time. I think you had a brain aneurism."

The microwave dinged and made us both jump a little. I got the mug out and handed it to her.

"Try to drink it slowly."

She made a face, and tears sprang to her eyes. "No. I can't. Oh my God. I can't believe you're giving me _blood!_"

"You have to eat, Beth. If you don't, you'll lose control of yourself when you get too hungry. You might try to hurt—"

"What! I might kill someone and drink their blood?"

"No! I won't let that happen. I'm going to take care of you, help you get acclimated, teach you how to live."

"Live?" she said incredulously. "I'm dead now, aren't I?"

"You're alive, Beth, just in a different way. It's just going to take some time to get used to, to understand."

She laughed humorlessly, a bit hysterical. "And I've got all of that I could ever want or need, now, right? I'm going to be like this forever. I'm not going to age or grow or change or sunbathe or eat food or breathe or—oh God!—have children! And my eyes—what's happened to my eyes?"

"You can see! It's like a miracle, isn't it?" I was grasping at straws, maybe for both of us. With my entire soul, I didn't want this to have been a mistake. God help us both if it was.

She shook her head forcefully. "I see too many colors. It gives me a headache just to look at you. They're all around you, changing and shimmering. They're around me when I look in the mirror. I feel like I'm seeing things in 3D. How am I supposed to live like this?"

I had no idea what she was talking about—changing colors? I hadn't experienced that when I was turned, and I'd never heard of such a thing with anyone else. Maybe she just needed to feed…

"Drink this, Beth. It might clear your head. You're hungry, sweetheart. Hunger in a vampire can really mess with your mind and body, especially in a new vampire."

She looked at the blood-filled cup, then at me, and reached out a tentative hand. I gave it to her and she slowly brought it to her lips. Her nostrils flared at the sweet smell, and I could see the flash of fangs as she opened her mouth to drink. After one sip, she was suddenly ravenous, downing it in one gulp. We were definitely going to need some more blood. I opened the other bag and she handed the mug back to me. I refilled it and put it in to heat again. Tears were falling silently down her cheeks, and it tore me up inside. I wanted to wrap her in my arms, to tell her it was going to be alright, but the way she was avoiding my eyes, I couldn't move to do it, and in that moment I didn't know if I could be sure that things _would_ be alright.

I gave her the heated blood, then slowly pulled out my cell phone.

"I'm going to need Josef's help," I said, as if asking permission. She nodded, continuing to drink. I punched his speed dial number shakily.

"Mick my friend," came his merry voice from across town. "You calling for some advanced seduction techniques?"

"Josef, I need you to come to Beth's with several bags of blood, as soon as you can. We uh, have a situation here." I looked at Beth, how she was reacting to the infusion of blood. It seemed to be calming her, but her eyes were still somewhat wild with fear and disorientation. As an afterthought, I said: "Bring Simone too." My voice must have betrayed my anxiety, for his reply was sober and clipped.

"We're on our way."

Good old Josef, rushing to my aid, no questions asked. I felt like weeping with relief when I realized he would be here in a matter of minutes, to share this crushing burden with me. Simone could really help too, being a recent newbie herself. Now, if only I could keep both of us from going crazy until they got there.

BETH

My brain was awhirl, my senses on overload, but I tried to focus on what had happened to me, what I could remember before…this. I'd just spoken to Josef on the phone, and I remembered having the worst headache of my life. I couldn't function, the pain was so great. It had built and built until I didn't think I could bear it another moment, then everything went black, and apparently I was a goner. Mick found me, turned me, and now, here I was, a vampire. Funny how life works.

One minute I'd been a blind, oblivious human; next thing I knew, I was seeing and feeling things that seemed impossible, surreal, horrifying. I looked down at the empty mug in my hand. It had tasted delicious, but I felt disgusted that it had been human blood that I'd consumed, not to mention the fact that I wanted more. I felt like I hadn't eaten in days; my stomach seemed uncomfortably empty. And I wanted it with my mind as well as my body. Now that I'd tasted blood, that's all I could think about. I wish my tongue could reach the bottom of the mug—I'd lick it clean.

"There's no more?" I asked Mick. Poor Mick. He was so concerned, so consumed with worry and fear. But I had nothing in me to offer him comfort. When I looked at him, I was consumed with rage at what he had done to me. I had never told him to turn me, except when I'd been out of my mind on Black Crystal. I'd been considering it lately, but my mind had by no means been made up. And he'd told me, after he hadn't changed Josh, that he would have done the same thing if it had been me dying. I had trusted him. He hated so much being a vampire, why would he subject me to this?

"I'm sorry," Mick was saying. "There's no more blood in the house. That's why I called Josef. It would be dangerous to take you out of your apartment right now, dangerous around humans."

I found myself pacing, wandering aimlessly around my home, trying not to think about the blood I so desperately wanted. Mick just stood there, impotently watching me. I had to get away from him, from the psychedelic mix of blues and oranges that swirled around him. I stopped in the bathroom and wet a washcloth to wipe the blood from my face. Cold, silver eyes looked back at me. There was blood in my hair, blood on the collar of my t-shirt, and all around my head in the mirror I saw lines of red and black. _The colors of blood, darkness, and death,_ I thought. _This would be my life now._ I was angry, and ravenous, and felt the overwhelming need to break free, to run away from here and keep running. I threw down the cloth and continued my foray around my apartment.

"I need to get out of here," I said on my third round through the kitchen where Mick still stood. "Can't we go outside? I need air."

"No. I'm sorry. Not a good idea. For one thing, the sun is too bright; it's the middle of the afternoon, Beth. You can't be out there for long. Here, I'll open the windows." He seemed happy for something to do, opening all the windows of the house. The air felt wonderful, but I'm not sure it helped to be bombarded with every scent from the outdoors. It was almost overwhelming.

"When's Josef going to get here?" I'm sure I sounded like an impatient child. I looked out the window and saw a man I recognized from my floor emerge from my building. His scent wafted in on the air and I found myself pressing my nose against the window screen. Mick was at my side in an instant, holding me back.

"Maybe I should shut these again. You might jump out and attack someone."  
"What? No, I wouldn't. That's Larry from apartment one down the hall. He's a nice guy. Single. He asked me out once. I wouldn't hurt him."

"You don't know what you would do right now, Beth. That's my point."

I twisted away from him, surprised at the surge of strength that passed through my body. I'd knocked Mick away several feet, and he stumbled into the wall before quickly righting himself. He looked at me in such shock that I almost smiled. I went back to staring hungrily out the window. Why was I contemplating tasting Larry's warm blood in my mouth? I realized I could actually hear it pumping through him, even from my vantage point on the second floor, and it called to my like some sort of macabre siren. I felt mildly disappointed as Larry climbed into his car and drove away. I felt Mick's presence behind me, and it annoyed me, this overprotective act.

"Stop hovering, Mick. I'm fine."

I knew he was hurt, could sense his feelings on a deeper level than I ever had as a human, but oddly, I just didn't care.

"I'm sorry, Beth. But like it or not, until you get control of yourself—"

"Control?" I rounded on him, suddenly unable to hold back my feelings anymore. As if from a distance, I heard myself lashing out at this man whom I would have sworn this morning I would never in a million years want to hurt. "You took all control away from me, didn't you? You took over and turned me against my will, just like Coraline did to you. Don't expect me to thank you for this, Mick. You made me into a monster, just like you. Don't lecture me about control. You should have let me die."

If I had struck him, he couldn't have looked more stunned and beaten. I turned back to the window, feeling suddenly as cold as the now dead heart within me. I heard him sit heavily in a chair, felt his soulful eyes on my back. I tried to concentrate on what I could detect now with my heightened senses. I heard individual birds chirping in the bushes outside. I could hear the rustling of small rodents on the ground below, could smell their gamey animal odor if I focused hard enough. In the distance, I heard the roar of cars and trucks on the freeway, the whine of a lawn mower somewhere on the next block.

Forcing my attention indoors, I heard the newlywed couple next door, the woman asking her new husband what he wanted for dinner, then the expected innuendo-laden reply. Across the hall, the little girl who lived there was watching _Sesame Street._ I knew this because I heard Big Bird speaking to Elmo, clearly as if they were in my own living room. And above it all, I heard their heartbeats, pumping the blood that I so desperately needed, taunting me with the desire to break through the walls and take it from them.

I heard a familiar vehicle coming down the road, and it took a minute before Josef's BMW pulled to a stop across the street. As he and Simone got out of the car, their eyes locked onto mine as I stood at the window. In an instant, they knew. I saw Simone's eyes widen in shock, Josef's mouth form a firm line. He quickly got out a small cooler from the backseat, and they hurried up my front steps disappearing inside the building. Mick had sensed them, of course, and was at the door, holding it open as they came down the hall.

"What the hell happened?" said Josef, setting the blood on my counter. His eyes traveled over me from head to toe, obviously apprehensive about knowing how I became what I was, but likely having already guessed. Simone stood in the entryway in silence, and I could sense she wanted to throw her arms around me, but she waited to hear the whole story, uncertain of how to interact with the new me.

I noticed the colors surrounding them were different—Simone was enveloped in a sunny yellow; Josef in clearly defined, dark red.

"I found her near death on the floor. She wouldn't have lived. I did the only thing I knew how." Mick's eyes watered, and he wiped at them in frustration. "I couldn't let her die, Josef, I couldn't."

"You could have," I said quietly. Josef flinched at my emotionless words, and Mick looked away in defeat. Simone could stand our distance no more, and came to me slowly, as if approaching a cornered animal.

"It's going to be okay, Beth. Don't be afraid. It's not so bad once you get used to the idea, I promise. We'll help you. We'll all be here for you. You're confused, your emotions are all over the place. I remember, but I can assure you It'll get better with time. First, you should have more blood."

I let her put her arm around me and lead me back to the kitchen. She prepared my drink and I sat at my little table, unable to quiet my mind.

"What am I going to do, Josef?" Mick asked his friend. Josef ran his hand through his spiky hair, then went to my cabinet where he knew I kept the liquor. He found two glasses and poured him and Mick a drink, shoving Mick's into his hand. They didn't bother hiding their conversation; it wouldn't have done any good to try now anyway.

"Well, my friend, you are her sire, and she is your responsibility, but Simone and I are here for you both. Give her a few days to come to grips with this. Then, we'll begin her training, just like we did with Simone. And look at her now—Simone's a phenomenal vampire." He smiled proudly at his wife, who smiled softly as she handed me my mug. "We'll get her set up at your place again, like she was when we brought her home from the hospital." He suddenly realized something, then addressed me directly for the first time. "You can see now, can't you, Blondie?" 

"Yes," I replied between gulps. "But it's weird now. I don't understand what I'm seeing."

He nodded, but didn't pursue what I was saying. "It's best she stays with you, Mick, for obvious reasons."

"No!" I slammed my mug down for emphasis, watching in surprise as it shattered into a million pieces, shards of porcelain thrown all around the kitchen. I stood up. "I'm not staying with him. I don't trust him anymore."

"Beth!" Simone began, in disbelief of my harsh words. "Mick loves you. He would never do anything—"  
"He killed me, Simone. He made me into this blood drinking monster. You might be able to live like this, but you asked for it; I didn't. I won't live with him. I won't!"

Josef and Mick exchanged pained looks, then, Mick turned to me. Somewhere deep inside I felt a twinge of sadness for him, but at the moment it was too deep for me to reach.

"I won't force you to, Beth," said Mick, his voice trembling a little. "But you're going to need…someone to be with you, at least for the first few weeks."

"I want to stay with Josef and Simone," I said matter of factly.

My three guests were startled by my suggestion, although, for me, it seemed the most logical conclusion.

"Of course you can," Simone said. I didn't miss the murderous look Josef directed toward his wife. "It will be fine. We'd love to have you. Besides, Mick only has one freezer at his place, and we have several vampire guest rooms. Until he gets things ready for you, this is the best solution."

"Beth," Josef began. "You have to understand something here. Mick is your sire. To become better adjusted, you have to continue to bond with him."

"It's okay," Mick said hoarsely. "Let her do what she wants. I don't want to upset her anymore. She'll be safe with you two. For now, it might be the best thing."

He turned his back on all of us, then walked over to look out the window. I was pleased he hadn't tried to fight me on this. It wouldn't have done any good anyway.

"It's settled, then," said Simone with forced brightness. "Beth, drink some more and I'll help you pack a bag. Everything will be alright, you'll see."

I wasn't immune to all the emotions flying around the room; I just couldn't find it in me to care. I dutifully finished another two cups, then went to my room with Simone. She walked me out into the hallway, no doubt leaving the two men to talk about me, to try to make more decisions about my fate. Well, they had another thing coming if they thought they could take any more control from me.

"Beth," Mick said softly. I turned back to him, my face blank. "I love you."

I looked at him dispassionately, but for once, I couldn't say the words back. Mick's devastated face was the last thing I saw before Simone quickly escorted me out of my building, then outside into sunlight that was no longer my friend.

A/N: Yes, this was sad and harsh, I know. I really do hate doing this to these wonderful characters, but I promise I won't torture them for long. All will be revealed soon about Beth's strange vision, and I do hope you like where I take things. Thanks for hanging in there; and reviews are always appreciated .


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: If you haven't read Ch. 2 yet, please go back and read it; this is my second chapter of the weekend. Some people were getting so upset and frustrated, that I felt I had to hurry and post this next chapter, even though it isn't as long as I'd originally intended. I don't want to lose any of you out there. That just means I'll have another update sooner, I suppose. I'll answer your posts as soon as I can. It means a lot to me as a writer that many of you were so affected by that last chapter. As a sort of comfort, remember that I almost always have a happy ending in my stories, (unless they are continuations). So here, I hope, is some comfort…

Chapter 3

JOSEF

I refilled Mick's glass with liquid courage and sat with him in Beth's living room. The women were waiting in the car, but I knew I couldn't leave without talking to my friend. Part of me wanted to kill Beth—again—for what she'd said to him. But I'd been around awhile, seen many newly turned vampires. They usually fell into one category or another—totally accepting, kowtowing to their sires, or angry and resistant. Sort of like Mick had been, himself.

I watched approvingly as Mick downed his glass.

"Talk to me, buddy," I murmured encouragingly. I knew Mick would begin to shut down if I didn't keep him talking. And a shut-down Mick was a suicide attempt waiting to happen. He put his face in his hands, and I could tell he was trying hard not to ball like a baby. I frankly wouldn't blame him if he did. I'd been lucky that Simone had been so quick to adapt, but then, our circumstances had been totally different. That's not to say the transition hadn't been totally without complications, but she'd wanted me to turn her, had, in fact, begged me on many occasions. Leave it to Mick to get the short end of the stick, the poor bastard.

"She's right," he was saying, his voice muffled by his hands. "This isn't what she wanted. She never told me she wanted to be turned. And I never told her I would."

Sort of a conversation they should have been having, in my estimation, but rubbing salt in the wound by pointing that out would just be too cruel, even for me.

"Mitigating circumstances," I said instead. "She's half out of her mind right now, but once she has time to think about it, she'll realize you felt like you had no choice. I'm not going to let you do this to yourself, you hear me? You did this out of love, and she'll see it, I know. But you are going to stop blaming yourself and engaging in insane self-flagellation. You are _not_ Coraline. Beth knows what you are, and loves you in spite of it. Hell, knowing Beth, she loves you _because_ of it. She's had a rough couple of months, now this. Give the girl some time."

"She's been pulling away from me since she got out of the hospital, Josef," he replied, looking up at me through red eyes. "Why do you think that is? What did I do to cause this total change of her heart?"

I thought about revealing the daily conversations I'd had with Beth lately, but it wasn't my place to tell him. She had in fact been distancing herself from him, but I knew it was because she hated not having the independence she once had. Her blindness had made her feel fragile, and Mick's protective nature had made her feel smothered. Trust me, I'd been on that receiving end myself. I won't lie and say I understood women, even after four centuries, but I definitely could relate to how awful it felt to be out of control of a situation. Buzzwire and I were alike in so many ways, but it wouldn't be good to voice this belief to Mick right now.

"She was coming around, Mick, I could see that. It was just taking her awhile to accept that her blindness might be permanent. You know what it's like to have to totally rebuild your life, to face something that knocked everything you knew before on its ass." I sighed, knowing just by his lost expression that he had a long way to go before he would forgive himself for a decision any other vamp would have made in his shoes, including me.

"Simone's right. Maybe staying with us is a good thing, for now. But I want you over there every day, you hear me? You're her sire; we're not. Think of it like having a new baby in the house. There's going to be a lot of crying and you have to clean up a lot of shit, but it's your responsibility to do it, because you brought it into this world."

His lips actually quirked a little at my imagery. "You really think it will be alright?" There was some tentative hope in his tone—a good sign.

"Yes. But you have to forgive yourself and get your ass in gear. Don't freeze up on us, here. Beth, whether she knows it or not, is going to need you. And I know damn well you need her. So man up, and quit with the recriminations."

I rose and grabbed his shoulder consolingly. "What's done is done, now deal with it. And by the way, I hate changing shitty diapers, just so you know."

"When did you ever have to change diapers?"

I grinned. "It's a long, dirty story, Mick, and not one I'm not about to relive."

"Thanks for being here, man," Mick said, looking at me with those wounded, puppy dog eyes of his. I'd never tell him in a million years, but they always got to me. If he kept turning them on in front of Beth, he'd be forgiven in no time, and she'd be ruffling his hair like the loyal pup he was.

"We'll get through this, all of us. Next year at this time, we'll be laughing about it, mark my words."

"Maybe _you_ will, Josef. But then, I've never completely understood your sense of humor."

I hated to leave him there, so alone and bereft, but I had Beth in the car waiting for guidance. Everyone seemed to be looking to me for answers all of a sudden, a position I didn't relish, but was certainly used to. Once you get to be my age, the wisdom-seekers come out of the woodwork. Yoda and I, we could have totally related.

MICK

I listened as Josef's car drove away until I could no longer hear the soft purr of its German engine. I looked at the bloodstained carpet before me, and tried not to give in to any more unmanly tears. Josef was right; I needed to get my ass in gear. I'd turned Beth, and there was no going back from that. I knew she loved me, despite the coldness she'd shown before she left, but I too had been completely thrown by what had happened, and the shock was only now beginning to wear off. I got my phone out and called the Cleaners, then began closing Beth's windows and picking up the larger shards of the cup she'd broken.

"What happened here," asked the tall blonde in black leather, sniffing out the human and vamp blood in the air. Her small team of vamps, disguised as regular house and carpet cleaners, had arrived within minutes, buckets and cleaning solutions in hand.

"A turning. No deaths; just needed the place cleaned up."

She eyed me knowingly. "This is Beth Turner's house; I looked up the address. She's your human, isn't she?"

I shook my head. "Not anymore." She didn't question me further, which is why she and her crew got paid so well. I directed them to the carpet and the kitchen, then sat in Beth's bedroom, deep in thought. It maybe took them ten minutes to finish, and I slapped several bills into the Cleaner's hand.

"Nice doing business with you, Mick." And then they were gone, and the place looked like nothing had ever happened. The last thing I wanted was for Beth to come back to find her own blood on the floor. I guess that's not precisely true. The _last thing_ I had ever wanted was to be in this position. I'd resisted it in the hospital, resisted it the last two years. Faced with her death, I had acted selfishly, but part of me was so relieved to still be able to see her, and for her to see me now, that I couldn't be totally sorry for what I'd done.

I allowed myself to contemplate what might have happened had I gotten there just a few minutes later, if I had found Beth completely dead on the floor, completely past all hope of reviving her at all. Selfish or not, her death would have meant mine too in one way or another. That was the moment I decided that this time, I wasn't going to crawl into hole or into a bottle of scotch like I'd done after I thought I'd killed Coraline. I was determined now not to throw away this second chance Beth and I had been given. I would fight for her, fight for us. I was her sire, whether she liked it or not, and I knew my Beth was still in there somewhere, buried beneath the anger and pain and coldness. I owed it to both of us to reach through the muck and pull her back out. And now, for once, I had all the time in the world.

A/N: Feel better now? I thought I'd go against Mick's usual reaction (once he got over the initial shock) and have him go fight for his lady. He has quite a challenge, and I warn you that it won't be easy, but I hope you have a little more faith in me now, lol. Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Wow! Lots of Beth hatred out there! Some of you are having concerns as to whether this is all in character. Remember, in my series, this is two years into Mick and Beth's serious relationship. I think with that much time invested, Mick wouldn't be that quick to give up, especially since his first marriage failed so miserably. As for Beth…Mick took her choice out of her hands, even though obviously she would have died had he not. She is newly turned, emotionally messed up, already bitter about her blindness. As for Mick being unable to forgive her—well, Mick himself had done horrible things he regretted right after he was first turned. Mick's not going to judge her, when he blames himself for so many things already, including getting involved with her in the first place, exposing her to all this vampire danger. There, I've stated my defense, lol. I guess I should be grateful everyone is so passionate about the show and my writing…I really didn't think I'd be opening such a big can of worms.

All that being said…please relax and enjoy the rest of the flight, even though I warn you there may be more turbulence ahead.

Chapter 4

JOSEF

When I got back to the car, Simone and Beth were sitting in the backseat, comfortable where I'd parked in the shade of a tree and with the tinted windows blocking the sunlight. They weren't talking; Simone was just holding her friend against her like she might a scared child. Beth's eyes were tightly closed, but I could tell she was too tense to be sleeping, especially without a freezer. I climbed in and started the BMW, leaving Mick behind to clean up one part of this mess. I glanced in the rearview mirror at my wife's face. She caught my eye, shaking her head once. I guess this was wife-speak for _everything is fucked up right now, but it will be all right eventually._

No one spoke. It was like coming home from a funeral. Well, a funeral where the corpse suddenly stood up and proved to be very much alive. Now what the hell was I supposed to in this situation? Was I running a harem or something? I'd heard of other vamps who did that, mainly in certain Eastern European countries, and while it did hold a certain appeal, the first members of my harem were extremely independent Western women, and all the trouble that implies. Plus, I don't think Mick would appreciate it either. But I digress. My point is, I didn't feel right about getting in the middle of the sire-newbie relationship. Too much could potentially be lost or screwed up without that bonding experience, and the last thing I wanted to be was a surrogate sire. I still had my own fledgling to look after.

I drove into the hills, through the security gates of my estate, and stopped at my front door. I looked again in the mirror, and the women had perked up considerably. Maybe Beth did need some distance, but for once, I didn't think I was going to enjoy this kind of awkward.

"We're here," I said inanely. "All ashore who's going ashore."

I got out and dutifully opened the back door. They hustled out of the car and out of the sun into the house, where Niles opened the door for them. I grabbed Beth's overnight bag and followed the ladies inside.

"Mrs. Kostan, Miss…Turner?" He'd caught the scent of newly-turned Beth, and was completely taken off guard that Mick's little human was no longer Mick's little _human_.

I just raised an amused eyebrow. "Niles, have the blue guest room prepared for Miss Turner, please."

"Very well, sir."

"Beth," Simone was saying. "Let's get you into the shower, change your clothes. I think you'll feel much better."

But Beth wasn't saying much. I think she was shell shocked, as Mick would say. _Godammit, Mick. You should be here, helping her though this._

Fortunately though, Mother Simone was here. I guess every kid needs a mom and a dad. Watching her with Beth, I felt my love for her grow exponentially. I poured myself a stiff drink and sat in my study, wanting to call Mick, but unsure what more I could say at this point. A few minutes later, Simone joined me, sitting next to me on the couch, kicking her shoes off and curling her feet under her. She leaned her head against my arm and sighed.

"Where's our little bundle of joy?"

"Still in the shower. Took her a minute to get used to the idea of an ice cold shower, but once she got in, she seemed to start feeling better. A shower always makes me feel like a new woman."

"Especially when you have someone to share it with," I whispered into her hair.

"Josef. None of that. This is serious. What the hell are we gonna do?"

"Have you had any luck getting through to her? She sure reamed Mick a new one."

"She's not talking. Have you ever seen a turning like this?"

I shook my head. "They're all different, babe, but just in the minor details. Ultimately, they either accept it or fight it. Clearly, Beth is fighting it. It's gonna take time and support. And her sire. This is a bad situation. Take it from me."

"I know you didn't have your sire there for you when you were turned. But Beth has us."

"Yeah." I decided to be stoically noncommittal on this topic. Yes, Beth had us, but I was sure hoping it wouldn't be for long, at least not under my roof. Much as I cared about her, she was Mick's responsibility.

"Speak of the devil…" I muttered, catching Beth's scent as she headed unerringly toward this room, a task made much easier by her enhanced senses.

She was freshly showered, her hair damp and childishly woven into two braids, and she looked like she was feeling a little better.

"More blood, Blondie?"

She grimaced, but nodded her head. I pressed a button on the console beside my couch. Niles would bring sustenance for three at any moment.

"How are you feeling?" asked Simone gently.

"Weird. It's like this is all one big nightmare that I can't wake up from."

"At least you have your health," I said mildly. Both pairs of female eyes flashed at me.

"Josef—"

"No, Simone; he's right. Yes, Josef, I sit before you among the living dead. I honestly don't know how to feel. I never wanted this, yet here I am, a vampire. I can see, but when I look at people, everything is out of whack. I'm—I'm just so overwhelmed."

Her tears were flowing again, and Simone got up to embrace her.

"I've been thinking about that," I said, ignoring the latest meltdown. I had the notion that if women's tears were ignored, they would just go away. "Your new vision, I mean. You say you see colors around people?"

"Yes. Everyone is different. And sometimes the colors swirl together or seem to have flames."

"Did you ever see this as a human?" I asked.

Simone settled her into an armchair, and rejoined me on the couch. Beth pondered my question a moment. "When I was a little girl, I thought I saw faint outlines of color around people. I asked others if they saw it, but I never met anyone else who did. As I grew older, I couldn't see it anymore. I haven't thought about that in years."

"It sounds like you're seeing people's auras now," said Simone.

"What? That's just new age stuff. Auras are supposed to allow people to see the personalities and emotions of others. I always figured people who saw them were probably high."

Niles arrived then, a silver tray in hand laden with three glasses of blood. We each took one and Niles took his unobtrusive leave.

"Auras are real," I said, picking up the conversation. "I've met plenty of people over the centuries who can see them. Different colors mean different things. We can probably track down a guru that can help you interpret what they mean."

"You've been given a gift, Beth," Simone said, understated excitement lacing her voice. "You got your sight back, plus a little extra."

Beth sipped her blood and looked away. "Why don't I feel like I've been given a gift? Why do I feel so…angry?"

"You have every right to be," Simone said. "This is a shock. You've been forced to change your entire existence. But Beth—"and here came my wife's tears—"I for one am so glad you aren't dead, that Mick—"

"Don't say his name!" Beth exclaimed. "I can't deal with him right now. Thinking of him makes me angriest of all. I feel so betrayed!"

"That's your new blood talking," I said softly, to take away the sting, though not the truth of my words. "Do you honestly think Mick would have been able to let you die without trying whatever he could to save you?"

Nothing like a little guilt trip to wake somebody up.

"He didn't with Josh," she said finally. _God, women were stubborn._

"Listen to me, Beth. I was there after that went down, remember? He kicked himself for months for disappointing you, even though he did what he thought was right. Mick blames himself for everything that goes wrong with the world. Starving children in Africa? Yeah, Mick must have done something to cause that, or they're being punished for something he did. Floods? Disease? All Mick's fault. Vampire victims everywhere all have Mick St. John to blame for their plight, just because Mick is also a vampire. Saving your life? Well, the scourge of Mick strikes again."

My words hung in the air as Beth drank morosely from her glass. "He killed me, Josef, then he turned me into this…bloodthirsty animal." She grimaced at the contents of her glass, but damned if she drank it anyway.

"Hey!" I objected. "Bloodthirsty animals here. And Mick didn't kill you—a brain aneurism did. You can choose to be angry at the world, and with Mick in particular, but you better start facing reality, sweetheart. You're one of us now, and if you're going to have any kind of life at all, you're gonna need to depend on your sire to show you the ropes. Let him help you, then cut him loose if you don't want him anymore. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in a pit of darkness that will make you wish you _were_ still blind."

"Go to hell, Josef," she slung at me before tromping out of the room.

"Yeah, and I'll say hi to Mick when I get there," I called after her, " 'cause you gotta know that's where he is right now."

"Dammit, Josef," Simone said, following after the pouting blonde. _Oh well. What's one more woman mad at me?_

I gave a long-suffering sigh and pulled out my cell phone.

"Is she okay?" Mick asked after the first ring.

"Physically? Yeah, she'll be fine. Emotionally, well—does Chernobyl mean anything to you?"

"Shit. Should I come over there?"

"Too soon, buddy. She's not very receptive at all. Not even my world-renowned charms have been able to get through to her."

"What did you say to her, Josef?" he asked suspiciously.

I chuckled. "Just a hearty dose of truth. I have no doubt it will sink in eventually. Come over tomorrow afternoon, after we've all had a good sleep. I bet the lay of the land will be a little different then."

He sighed, and I could picture him running his hands through that 1980's hairstyle of his.

"Okay. But you'll let me know if there's any change…?"

"Of course. How are you though, Mick?"

"The shock has worn off…mostly. But you're right, Josef. She _is _my responsibility, and, what's more, I love her more than anything in the world. I don't regret that I saved her. I've thought about it and even if she hates me for the rest of her life, knowing that she's still in this world is enough to allow me to forgive myself."

"Well halle-fuckin'-lujah! After fifty years, the man has finally seen the light! It's truly a miracle!"

"Shut up, Josef. There are still a million things I blame myself for, but I'm just selfish enough where Beth is concerned that I don't see the point in wallowing in guilt right now. She needs me, and I intend to make her see it."

"Amen. Bring some of that optimism over here tomorrow—you're gonna need it in spades. I've got two pissed off females over here, and only one of them is mad at you, my friend."

"Sorry. Thanks, man. For everything. I really owe you this time."

"I know. And for once, I fully plan to collect on this debt."

"What do you want?" he asked, that familiar note of suspicion in his tone.

"I haven't decided," I told him. "Depends on what happens over the next twenty-four hours."

"Whatever it is, I'll gladly pay."

I grinned. "Yes, you will. Not sure about the gladly part though."

A/N: That last bit was what you might call a little comic relief. I still have a roller coaster ride planned, but I hope this sets the stage for the story I intend to tell. Thanks to all for hanging in there with me. Your reviews—positive, passionate, or indifferent—mean the world! Oh, and please log in. There are some great posts that I can't respond directly to unless you are logged in first.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Maybe I should have written this chapter first. I might have saved myself (and others) a lot of grief, lol. Anyway, I'm letting Beth speak for herself. It's a little on the wordy side, but I hope it goes toward a better understanding of where Beth's been coming from.

Chapter 5

BETH

No one seemed to understand me. Just a few months ago, everything had been fine—perfect, almost. Mick had been my whole world, and I loved him to the depths of my soul. Did I have a soul, now? I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was one more thing that had been taken away from me.

After I'd awakened in the hospital three months ago, blind and frightened, Mick had been there. He'd put a ring on my finger, swearing to stay by me through all of this. And he had. At first I'd appreciated it, and I had high hopes of finding a doctor who could restore my sight. But as doctor after doctor had given us the bad news, my usual optimism began to fade. I had to start facing that this was going to be my life from now on. But Mick and Josef would not give up. We had been slated to start our European doctor tour next month, and I didn't know if I was really up to it. I was so tired of the poking and prodding, of the x-rays and the overnight hospital stays. It began to seem pretty pointless to me. And now I'd just be setting myself for hearing more sympathetic refusals, only this time in foreign accents.

I didn't want to disappoint the guys, or Simone, who was right there with them, my personal cheerleader. Don't get me wrong—I was not ungrateful. But Mick was like the patron saint of lost causes where I was concerned. I became increasingly depressed, and it became a struggle not to let everyone know it. After a month at Mick's place, I moved out, despite all his protests and obvious fear. But he'd let me do it because he loved me, but mainly because I would brook no arguments. I let him install an elaborate alarm system just so maybe he'd worry a modicum less.

It was too emotionally draining to hide how down I was, how his encouragement was falling more and more on deaf ears. I shut down emotionally, then physically. I withdrew more deeply into myself, hiding my true feelings behind my blank stare. I was slowly letting him go. It had been bad enough that he was going to one day see me die; I didn't want him to see me old and blind, too. I cried many nights into my pillow, self pity becoming my friend. Josef's daily calls would take my mind off things for a few minutes, but nothing seemed to be able to get past the walls of misery I'd built. On more than one occasion, I wanted to die.

Ben Talbot came by to offer me some semblance of a job back. That was like twisting the knife. I pitied myself enough that I didn't need it from him, too. His visit had been sad and awkward, and I'd only agreed to think about it to get him to leave feeling like he'd accomplished something by asking. Why couldn't Ben or Mick see that my work had been all about my vision? I needed to see to seek out clues, to help put away the bad guys. How could I do that without my sight? I'd gotten myself into plenty of dangerous situations while I _could _see; there was no way I could survive being a blind investigator. And the last thing I wanted was some token desk job, where I couldn't even see a computer screen. I was going to be worthless to everyone, dependent on others for my care, like a newborn in the big, scary world.

Mick began to seem more like my daddy than my lover. The few times we'd attempted to be together intimately, he handled me with even more restraint than before. He refused to even drink from me. I thought the bedroom had been the one place where I could still connect with him. We'd lost something, and now it wasn't just my vision. We loved each other, but the passion was gone in the face of his fear and overprotectiveness, and in my depression and self-pity. So I'd given him what he needed, then I begged off, telling him the daily headaches I got weren't conducive to enjoyable lovemaking. Soon, he didn't even try anymore.

When I had awakened again yesterday, much as I had from my coma three months before, my life had changed yet again, even more drastically than before. I wasn't even human anymore, wasn't even alive. My vision was back, but with a crazy kind of cosmic joke attached. When I saw Mick, his mouth red with our combined blood, I felt an anger within me like I never had before. Why hadn't he taken pity on me and let me die? All our problems would have been solved then. Instead, he'd sentenced me to a new kind of darkness, away from the sunlight, doomed to drink the blood of the living for the rest of my unnatural life. How many times had he told me how horrible it was to be a vampire? How he hated himself for what he'd become against his will? How it wasn't something he'd wish upon anyone, even Josh, who had died in front of us while Mick could have easily saved him. And yet, with me, he'd thrown all of his old beliefs away so he could keep me in a new kind of gilded cage, dependent on others once again.

I knew all of this had come from love, even while I was hurling insults and hurtful words. I knew Mick never did anything unless it came from good intentions. It was my fault I had closed down on him these past months, but the new vampire blood within me had suddenly opened the floodgates and I felt helpless now to keep my pent-up feelings from breaking free. As my sire, he would have even more control over me, more concern over every aspect of my new existence. Sires were more truly like fathers than a human's real parent, or so I'd been told. We'd have a bond that would never be broken, and it wasn't necessarily a bond of love.

I'd watched Simone right after she'd been turned, and even though she'd requested it, she'd resented Josef's new role. It would be worse for me, because I hadn't asked for this. I'd just spent months trying to free Mick and I both from a life of unhealthy dependence, and, as much as I still loved him, being totally dependent upon him was not the kind of relationship I wanted. Apparently, according to Josef, there wasn't much I could do about that. Josef and Simone might be my haven right now, but he'd made it abundantly clear that I was ultimately Mick's responsibility. As I sat in Josef's blue guest room, I let the tears flow down my cool cheeks, then I watched them make dark stains on the paisley comforter beneath me. I sighed in frustration. I guess there was one last thing I wouldn't have a choice about.

MICK

I arrived at Josef's at around two the next afternoon, anxious to see Beth, to begin my sire duties, but mostly to see how she was doing, how well she was adapting so far. Niles let me in with a sympathetic nod, no doubt fully aware of all the goings-on in this house. It was hard to keep secrets from a vampire, even a discreet vampire butler.

"Mr. Kostan is by the pool," he informed me. "May I get you some refreshment, sir?"

"No, thanks. I'll find him."

Josef was actually in the converted patio near the pool, which doubled as his home office. Usually, if Josef was working at home, it was a small hive of activity, but for Beth's benefit, he must have kept his workers away. He was still making business calls, however, and I walked over to look out the glass window to the clear blue pool until he finished talking. So many memories of Beth, even in this house. We'd swum in this pool one hot afternoon, played in it like children, made love in the water beneath the overhanging plants. Our love had been so new then, so full of promise even with all the strikes against us. How could everything have fallen apart in just a matter of weeks?

"How is she?" I asked after he'd concluded his business.

"Well, I was kicked out of my own bed this morning."

I turned away from the window. "What?"

"Simone was afraid Beth might become claustrophobic sleeping in a small freezer her first time, like she did. She and Beth commandeered the freezer room where we keep our bed. I was relegated to another guest room with my older, and, might I add, less comfortable deep freeze. I've warned Simone about coddling her, but neither one of them is listening to me right now. I sorta laid into Beth pretty hard last night."

"I'm sorry," I said simply. "about your bed, I mean. Is she awake?"

"I think so. I'd proceed with caution, though, my friend. But maybe she'll be easier to deal with now she's had a good long sleep in an exceptionally comfortable bed."  
Just then, I sensed Beth's presence nearby, and I looked up. Our eyes locked as she entered the room beyond the patio, and I felt it like an electric shock. It was like someone had jump-started the blood in my veins, for it seemed to roar through my brain as I looked at her.

Beth had frozen where she stood as well, and I watched her eyes widen with surprise. I was vaguely aware of Josef standing beside me, looking from me to Beth and back again. His nostrils flared with interest, and he grinned.

"Awww…I forgot about that post-turning sexual jolt. I'll uh, just leave you two lovebirds alone…"

He opened the patio door and walked into the main part of the house. "Afternoon, Beth," he said in passing, humor lacing his tone. She ignored him, and I soon followed him inside.

I could not look away from her, and her erotic new scent enveloped me, drew me to her like an animal in heat. That description of her sexual hold on me was not much of an exaggeration. I hadn't been with a vampire woman in years now, too smitten and committed to Beth to even think about it. But this I remembered. It was the primal urge to mate, that deeper than blood attraction that two vampires could feel when they liked what they saw. And I very much liked what I was seeing now.

Twenty-four hours of new blood within her body had completed her metamorphosis, and she stood before me, all woman, all vampire, all mine. I was ashamed to remember that this feeling was akin to the madness I had felt once upon a time with Coraline, especially after she'd first turned me. Sex with her before had been wildly passionate and uninhibited. Sex with her when we were both vampires—sublime. Dangerously addictive. It was what kept me coming back to her, time and painful time again.

I had the sudden vision of what sex would be like with Beth now, a woman I truly loved. I wouldn't have to hold back my passion or strength, and she would be able to keep up with me and then some, given the incredible power of the newly turned. I could literally feel my mouth water, feel the tightness in my jeans as I stopped before her.

"Beth," I breathed, longing to touch her, but afraid she was still too angry with me to allow it. She looked up at me, her eyes taking on a faintly silver cast, as I'm sure mine were as well. This close to her unbidden arousal, it took every ounce of strength in my body not to throw her to the floor and rip her clothes off with my fangs.

She blinked at last, and I saw her struggling for her own control. She cleared her throat, and took a defensive step back.

"Mick," she said softly, and I felt like groaning at how sexy she sounded, enhanced by the anger in her voice. "Simone told me you were coming today. Josef has made it pretty clear that I'm _your_ responsibility, not his. So, teach me what I need to know to be a good little vampire, then your obligation to me will be done."

It took a moment for her words to sink in. I was happy that she was going to submit to our sire-fledgling relationship, but that stuff about her being my _obligation...?_

"I have some ground rules though," she continued, leaving me to try to deal with the onslaught of emotions and hormones racing through my body, while trying to focus on what she was saying.

"Ground rules?" I repeated vaguely. She took a few more steps backward, as if that small distance could make a difference in what I know we both were feeling. Her voice was a little shaky, despite her determined words.

"Yes. First, I don't care to know how to feed from a—freshie. I know I have to drink blood, but I can live with fresh from the microwave, if you don't mind."

"Sure. That's fine. But at some point you might want—"

"No. I won't." I wasn't going to argue with her about this. A vampire had certain needs, and while it was no longer my personal choice, someday it might be hers, and that would be okay with me. Or at least, I could live with it. Maybe.

"Secondly," she was saying, "I don't want you ordering me around. You aren't my daddy."

"Okay." Believe me, my feelings for her were far from fatherly.

"And third, no physical contact. Between us, I mean. I'm trying hard to forgive you, Mick, and I don't want to further cloud the issue by getting…_involved _with you again."

"What?"

"You heard me." But she wouldn't meet my eyes. Instead, she turned her back to me, and I saw her hand go up to her mouth, as if she were nervously biting a fingernail. This would be by far the most challenging rule to keep, especially with my desire for her stronger than it had ever been.

"Beth?" I waited for her to turn back to me, and I saw that her eyes were watery with unshed tears. I felt my own eyes regard her more softly. "Does it matter that I still love you? That I'm sorry for making you suffer like this?"

She wiped at a tear that welled up and slipped down her pale cheek. I wanted more than anything to take her into my arms and comfort her, reassure her that everything was going to be all right.

"No. Please, Mick. If this is going to work, you have to give me time. Everything is so new, so foreign to me now. If you can't follow my rules, well…I'll find someone else who can."

The thought of her seeking out some strange vamp to act as her sire made me at once burn with rage and fear. I could go along with her little rules, counting on our bond to keep her close, and eventually wear down her resistance enough that she would turn to me, look at me with love like she had before her blindness had stolen her away from me.

"I'll follow your rules," I agreed tentatively. "But in return, you have to listen to me, Beth. _Really_ listen. There are older, stronger vamps out there who might try to enslave you, take advantage of your ignorance. This could mean life or death for you, sweetheart. You are more powerful now than you can possibly imagine, but in a few months, once your body becomes fully settled into itself, that power will wane somewhat, and the older vamps will be able to knock you on your ass or stake you before you can think."

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing," she muttered, her eyes cast down.

I reached out and promptly broke Rule Number Three. I lifted her chin up, ignoring the spark of awareness that shot through my hand, shaking us both to the core.

"I don't ever want to hear that from you again, you understand me? I'm not saying this as your daddy or your sire, but as the man who still loves you with all his being. I would have died along with you had I not saved you, Beth. I swear that is true. You are what keeps me alive, keeps me sane. Somewhere beneath that anger you're feeling toward me now, you know this. Please promise me you won't do something foolish to hurt yourself. If I ever meant anything to you-"

"Okay," she whispered, cutting off my impassioned words. "I promise." I slowly released her chin, but it had felt so right to touch her, it was almost painful to let go. She'd felt it too, judging by the pain that flashed in her eyes as well. I swallowed hard.

"I'll come for you when it's dark. The moon is supposed to be full, so it will be a good night to begin your training."

She nodded. Then, before I could say any more, she fled from the room. I could hear her crying upstairs, the soft creak of her bed as she lay upon it, her sobs slightly muffled by her pillow. The weight of what I'd done hit me all at once, and I prayed for the strength to follow her rules and not run after her. Her reaction to me had given me a new sense of optimism, however. Rule Number Three was going to be just as difficult for her. For the first time in twenty-four hours, I smiled with genuine emotion.

A/N: Okay, is it clearer where I'm heading now? I hope so. Thanks so much for all the great reviews. I hope you have time to write one for this chapter. Reviews are as good as chocolate. Okay, _almost_ as good ;).


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: If you haven't read Chapter 5 yet, please note that this is the second chapter I've posted this weekend, so you might want to make sure you are caught up before proceeding. I got a little carried away with this chapter, so I must warn you that it is rated "M" for sexual content and blood play. If you are squeamish, just read til the "MMMMMMMMM". Also, this chapter is extra long, for your added enjoyment.

Chapter 6

"Okay," I asked Simone, who sat in the blue velvet wingback chair near my bedroom window. "What does one wear on her first night of vampire training?"

"Something stretchy, and comfortable."

I dug through my hastily packed bag, realizing that if I stayed with Simone and Josef much longer, I'd definitely need more clothes. I pulled out a pair of dark jeggings, a soft blue t-shirt, and sneakers. I held them up for my friend's approval, and she nodded at my choice. I sat heavily on the bed, picking up my cup of blood from the nightstand. I was always hungry, and she and Josef had me feeding around the clock like an infant. Simone said drinking from a freshie satisfied you better, for longer, but the thought of biting someone made me feel sick. I could see why Mick had sworn off them. Until _we_ began sleeping together, that is. _Mick._ I sighed. Just thinking his name brought on such a mixture of emotions that it made my head swim.

"Simone, may I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course."

"After you were turned, did you…_want_ Josef more…I mean _sexually_…?"

She laughed. "Oh, my God, I can't even tell you…I used him like a prostitute for days after. I felt like a total slut, myself, I wanted sex so much. I didn't hear many complaints, however. Why? Having new thoughts about Mick after seeing him?" She gave a knowing smile, and I looked away, angry at myself for feeling this way about a man I was so furious with.

"Beth? It's okay, you know. That's normal, from what I've heard. How did Mick react to seeing you in all your vampiress glory?"

"I think we were both taken completely by surprise. When I looked at him, the sexual energy slammed into me like a truck. I mean, I wanted to jump him right there, push him against a wall and—" My former self would have been blushing with acute embarrassment by this point.

"I understand completely." She paused a minute, then: "Well, why didn't you?"

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you go ahead and attack the man? He's a gorgeous specimen, and you love him. I bet that would go a long way toward mending your relationship."

"No," I said, standing up to change into my "training clothes." "Sex isn't going to fix this, Simone. It might make me resent him even more, this sexual power he has over me now."

"Come on, Beth. Give the guy a chance to make this up to you. Great sex would be a start." I gave her a glare, but she just chuckled at me. "Try to look at it from his point of view. Had it been the other way around, wouldn't you have done everything you could to keep him from dying?"

I really hadn't considered this. I still loved him—I couldn't deny it. But would I change another person into a vampire? I don't know. I mean, even now the thought of sucking someone's blood was abhorrent to me. I couldn't imagine draining someone dry, killing them and taking them away from heaven to live in this purgatory of darkness.

"I don't honestly know, Simone. My mind is still not what it was. I feel so…unsettled. Out of sorts. Strange. I don't like feeling so out of control."

"It's only been a day," she said soothingly. "You just need time, and training. Mick taught me the fine art of vampire climbing and jumping, remember? He's a great teacher. Did he say where you are going?"

"No, but it's almost dark. He should be here any time." From a distance, I could suddenly hear his old Mercedes lumbering up the long driveway. Simone had heard it too, and smiled. She sensed my nervousness and rose to let me finish dressing.

"Come down when you're ready. I'll let him know you're on your way." She hugged me impulsively. "Don't worry. Just go with what you feel. Listen to what your heart is telling you."

"What heart?" I asked, bitterness creeping into what I had planned to be an amusing comeback. She shook her head in chastisement.

"Stop it. Thinking like that is only going to make things worse."

She left me alone then, and resolutely, I bent down to tie my shoes, annoyed when my new strength caused me to easily break a shoeless.

##############

Seeing him again was even harder. He was so beautiful, and I wanted him fiercely, almost as much as I craved blood now. He'd been waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. His aura this evening shone green, matching those sexy, chameleon-like eyes of his. I'd done a little searching on the internet, and I found to my surprise that many other people saw auras, and that the colors had come to mean many things to different people. Josef said he would call a man he knew to further teach me, but until then, I was relying on what I'd read. If I recalled correctly, green meant someone was feeling helpful, and even healing. This afternoon he'd been outlined in deep blue, which meant moodiness and a sense of purpose. All sounded like an accurate description of Mick.

I pushed those romantic notions aside, reminding myself how angry I was. If I held onto that anger, I wouldn't have to face what I'd become. It would be my shield against the world. My shield against Mick.

"Beth," he said simply, his eyes burning into mine almost feverishly. That voice of his had always made me shiver.

"Mick," I replied hesitantly. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah. Come on."

I glanced over at Simone and Josef, who had been chatting with Mick while they'd waited for me. I followed Mick out the door, trying hard not to laugh as Josef called after us.

"Have her home at a decent hour, will ya? And no making out at the drive-in, or I'll know. You hear me, St. John?"

Mick did chuckle as he opened the car door for me, waving back at our two friends who stood like concerned parents in the doorway. I climbed in, the full moon bright above us as we drove off in his convertible. I could smell the unmistakable odor of blood, my senses drawn to the back seat. A cooler was there, no doubt containing the macabre necessities of a vampire picnic. I slouched down into the seat and watched as we drove past several Hollywood Hills mansions on our way back down to the freeway. Neither of us said a word, but the sexual tension simmered between us, making me tremble and curse to myself at my lot in life.

All around us, cars containing humans came tantalizingly close in the traffic. I could hear the drivers' individual hearts beating, felt my mouth water at the distant smell of their warm blood, noted their multicolored auras as we passed. I was also amazed at how well I could see in the dark. I realized Mick didn't need headlights at all to see where he was driving, that he likely did it to follow the law and to avoid others running into us. It was like having on night vision goggles, and I found myself smiling when I saw all the nocturnal animals scurrying in the desert around us.

We drove for about an hour, exiting the main interstate for a sign pointing the way to old Highway One. I could smell the ocean on the breeze. We finally stopped at a narrow turn out at the top of a cliff. Far below, the Pacific beat violently against the rocks. I looked out past the beach and saw the spires of tall rock formations, remnants of ancient mountains that the wind and water had worn away. Signs everywhere warned against the dangers of swimming or surfing, of sliding rocks and dangerous undertows. This was where he was taking me?

I got out of the car before he could come around and stood in the wind, breathing in deeply though it seemed unnatural now to do so. It felt good to be outside. I hadn't been out much in the last three months, and certainly hadn't been to the beach since I couldn't remember when. Cars sped past us, and Mick motioned for me to follow him to the edge of the cliff. It was a long way down, but it didn't plunge headlong. There were different levels of rocks and sand, like stair steps for giants, leading down to the rocky beach. It wasn't a place where many people would attempt to gain access. But apparently, that didn't hold true for vampires.

"You ready?" He asked.

"We're going down there?"

"Yes. We'll jump it one level at a time. It looks far, but you won't fall if you take it slow."

"I don't know…" I hedged, my human fears still ingrained in my psyche.

"Even if you do fall, you'll still be okay. Don't be afraid. You can do this. You have to overcome your fears, Beth. That comes by a leap of…faith." He smiled gently at me, and deep down, I knew how symbolic this was of our relationship, of our own personal fears. At the time, however, I was too busy holding on to my anger and my walls to embrace what he was saying.

"You go first," I said. He nodded, stepping closer to the edge. Then, he jumped, landing solidly about ten feet below.

"Come on," he called, looking up at me.

_I was a vampire now. I was physically capable of doing this. I won't die. I __**can't**__ die, not like this._

I closed my eyes and jumped out into the abyss.

MICK

She landed a foot from me, stumbling a little on the rock-strewn terrain. I automatically reached out to steady her, and the contact made me tremble a little myself. She stepped away, opening her eyes and looking in wonder into my own. I saw a glimpse of the old Beth, and it warmed my dead heart to see it.

"I can't believe I did that!" she exclaimed, looking up from where she'd come, then down to where we were heading.

"Yes. Very good. You ready for the next level down? It's a little farther."

"Okay."

"Try keeping your eyes open, this time," I advised. "You need to be able to see where you're going so you can get your footing. I'll go first again."

And we continued like that, two more levels down, until we reached cold, wet sand. The tide was coming in, and we skirted the bottom of the cliff to avoid the advancing waves. Ahead of us, a natural rock bridge joined with part of the larger cliff, connecting with a rock formation offshore. I had chosen the beach rather than the city, knowing that she wasn't ready for human contact yet. Also, it was beautiful here, and the crash of the surf always seemed to calm me. I hoped it would help Beth find some peace, herself.

"You want to practice jumping up now?"

"What? Up there?" she asked, looking up twenty feet to the top of the bridge.

"That last jump down was about twenty feet. You can make this easily."

"But that was _down_…" she said. "Isn't going up harder to judge."

"A little. It's wider up there than you think. I've made jumps like this a million times—you've even seen me do it."

"Yeah, but that's the point. _You _have done it a million times."

I laughed. "Beth, right now, newly turned, you're just as strong as me."

"Really?"

"Don't get too excited. That will wear off in a couple of weeks, and then you won't be able to kick my ass anymore."

"So," she ventured, her tone neutral, "I could kick your ass right now, if I wanted?"

It was hard to tell if she was kidding or not. I decided she wasn't. "Yeah, you could. I'd let you, if that would make you feel better."

She looked away from me, out into the sea. "It wouldn't," she said at last.

I blinked back sudden tears, cleared my throat, then turned on my teacher voice again, trying to move beyond personal feelings. "Okay. To jump up, just bend your knees to start the momentum, then get a bead on where you want to land. Tell your body what you want it to do, and it will do it. Watch me."

I jumped straight up, landing gently atop the smoothly hewn surface of the bridge. I turned back to look down at her, holding out my hands. "Your turn." She hesitated, and I could sense her fear.

"Come on, honey," I said, forgetting myself with the endearment, "you can do this."

She bent her knees like I'd instructed, and pushed off of the ground. Her jump was perfect, but, unfortunately, it was just a little short. Before I knew it, she was holding onto the smooth rock near my feet, her legs dangling into space.

"Mick!" she screamed.

I reached down and grasped her hands with mine, pulling her the rest of the way up. She could have swung her legs up the rest of the way easily, but I knew she was too frightened to remember her new strength. I set her down next to me, and she stood there, shaking and looking down in horror.

"I almost fell," she stuttered.

I smiled gently. "And you would have landed on your feet like a cat," I reminded her.

"Oh," she said in surprise, looking down again. "Wow."

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Let's walk over to that rock formation out above the water. It's only a little ways." I headed in that direction, picking my way carefully over the rock, calling behind me for her to watch out for the slight incline ahead. I'd gone about fifty feet when I realized she wasn't close behind me. I turned back, and she was right where I left her, frozen in place.

"Beth? Is something wrong?"

"No. I just—well, I had a little vertigo, that's all."

"Totally understandable. Your human brain hasn't caught up with your vampire senses yet. Just start walking, and try not to look down. I'm right here. You don't have to be afraid to fall anymore."

I locked her eyes with mine, willing her to cast off her fear and come to me. Our new connection was stronger by far than our old one, but while our blood called to each another, her mind was still closed off to me, and it hurt; I can't tell you how much. But My Beth was strong-willed and determined, and while she'd lost some of that over the last few months, I could see her confidence growing again, and I realized that no matter if she never loved me again, she was going to be okay now. Tentatively, she began to walk.

We had to do a little mountain climbing once we got to the end of the bridge, but the face of the giant rock had plenty of natural handholds. About ten feet up, and we found a flat surface, suitable for sitting and taking a rest, though, of course, neither of us was physically tired.

The moon was beautiful above, and I was struck at how lovely she was in the moonlight. We sat on a little outcrop, the sound of the waves crashing beneath us, occasionally spraying us with a light, refreshing mist.

"I know how you feel, Beth," I began softly, after we'd sat in the most comfortable silence we'd had in weeks. "After Coraline turned me, I was furious. I wanted to die, and I told her this, just like you told me. I was disgusted with myself and what I had become. I felt like killing her, but I knew I couldn't make it without her help. This dependence on her made me hate her all the more. This is why I don't blame you for how you feel; I've been there myself. I had loved her, had made her my wife, but she betrayed me. You told me you didn't want to be turned, and I did it anyway. It was selfish of me, as selfish as Coraline wanting to keep me with her forever. But, God help me, I'm not sorry for it. I'm only sorry to see you hurting like this."

"I don't hate you, Mick," she said softly, tears sliding down her cheeks. She swallowed and looked over at me, and our deeper sexual attraction made me feel weak with longing. I wanted more than anything to reach out to her, to pull her close to me and make love with her in the moonlight.

"I love you, which is why this is so hard," she continued. "I—I can't seem to release this anger. It's been building since my fall in Tahoe. My sight had been taken from me. I had begun to realize that I was going to be blind the rest of my life, and I was trying to let you go, letting you be free of me."

"What? Why? We love each other. I was willing to go through this with you, to be with you as long as we could. Hell, I was going to marry you. It didn't matter that you were blind."

"It mattered to me. You were smothering me, Mick. And I hated the world, and even you, for making me feel so dependent on you. Then, I awaken to find you had turned me into what you've been telling me for years was a curse. Yesterday, when I said those awful things to you, I meant them."

I grimaced, but held her gaze. "And what about today, now that you've had time to think? You still mean them?"

There was a beat or two of silence, then: "Not everything," she conceded. But she wasn't going to clue me in on what specifically she meant.

She stood up now, and I could see she wanted to leave. I stood up beside her, the moon so large that high on this rock in the middle of the Pacific, I felt like I could reach out and touch it. But, like the moon, Beth was deceptively close. Our eyes still clashed, the fire between us palpable in the face of our heightened emotions. Unable to resist anymore, I pulled her into my arms. She was too shocked to move, so I brought my lips down on hers.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Our passion flared like gasoline on a fire, and my tongue slipped past her lips to plunder her mouth in a kiss that went on forever. Our hands tangled in each other's hair, our equal strength drawing us as close as we could be while still fully dressed. Speaking of which…my hands drifted down from the ends of her long hair to her waist, then beneath her t-shirt, smoothing over her cool back, then around to the front to cup her breasts through her bra. She gasped into my mouth, and I ground my pelvis into hers, my thumbs on her nipples, circling and tugging while her own hands settled roughly on my ass.

It had been so long since we'd been close like this, but now, it was like it was our first kiss all over again. I guess it was in a way—our first kiss as two vampires. It didn't take me long to remember that I couldn't hurt her physically anymore, so I poured out my passion with none of the restraint I had used when she was human. I didn't have to let go of her lips to let her breathe, didn't have to slow or ease my movements to accommodate her weaker nature. She was strong and she was giving as good as she was getting. Her hands kneaded the muscles in my butt, making me become painfully hard against her. We inhaled each other's arousal, sensed it was building by the second, but when my hands found their way inside her stretchy jeans, she pushed me away with such force that I flew into the side of the rock, sliding down to sit at an awkward angle against it. I felt the pain of rock shards poking into my back, drawing blood that soaked into my Henley.

Beth was standing there, her nostrils flaring at her first scent of vampire blood. To another vampire, our blood was like an aphrodisiac. She advanced on me, pulling me roughly to my feet, her hands going unerringly beneath my shirt to find the wetness pouring from my body. She drew her hand away and looked at it, my blood smearing her fingers. Tentatively, she brought them up to her mouth and tasted.

"Beth—" I breathed shakily. Then she was turning me around, pulling my shirt off over my head, her soft tongue lapping at the blood like a kitten at a bowl of milk. I shuttered with new arousal, my hands braced against the side of the rock. She moaned helplessly, reaching around to unfasten my belt, then unzip my jeans. I felt the scratch of Beth's fangs against my wounds, at the same time her hands encircled my freed erection.

"Jesus! Honey, slow down, or I'm gonna—"

I felt the bite in my side and I hissed through my own extended fangs. I allowed her to drink a moment, feeling like I was going to climax at any second. But I didn't want this new first time to end like this, so quickly, without first enacting my recent fantasy of taking her up here in the moonlight. With vampire speed, I spun around, taking her off guard so that she automatically detached from my waist. I caught her up by the arms and took her mouth again, tasting my own blood on her lips and on her tongue. This time, she didn't stop me as I pulled down her pants, then her panties, lowering her body and entering her the moment she touched the ground. She arched against me, pulling me more deeply inside with internal muscles that had my eyes crossing with ecstasy.

Each time I moved, her hold relaxed then re-tightened, and I was well on my way to the most monumental orgasm I'd ever had. Then her nails dug into my back, drawing more blood, and our movements became frenetic. I could feel her trembling within on the verge of her own release. With one last thrust, I came with a roar, burying my fangs into her neck as she clamped down on my bicep with her own. I growled again, her bite adding another layer of erotic sensation.

After a moment, I released her, falling heedlessly against her chest. Her own fangs slipped out of my arm and we lay on the rock, panting as if we were still human. So much for Rule Number Three.

A/N: Bet you weren't expecting that, were ya? I'd love to hear what you think, so please log in and review.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks so much for all the positive feedback. I really appreciate it! This chapter is shorter than the last, but I hit a stopping point with it, so I thought you wouldn't mind a quick update. I really had fun writing the first part of this, from Josef's POV. I hope you like it too.

Chapter 7

JOSEF

Simone and I were enjoying a cozy evening at home. We were watching some inane sitcom, waiting for Mick and Beth to come back from their first training session. It was so domestic, I wanted to stake myself. That is, until Simone began nibbling on my ear. Now things were about to get a little more interesting…

I sighed when I heard Mick's car coming up the drive, and I continued to let Simone's hand wander beneath my shirt until I heard the front door open with such force that I wondered if I'd have to get the door re-hung.

"Hey, honey, sounds like the kids are home."

A second later, we heard Beth stomping up the stairs, then slamming the door to her bedroom. What was it with women and doors? Simone and I looked at each other, her eyes filled with concern, mine with humor. She gave me a sigh of exasperation, and went off in search of our obviously upset houseguest. I, of course, was dying to know how Mick had fared.

I found him standing in the entryway, a dazed grin on his face. He reeked of blood and sex and the sea. His shirt was inside out and bloodstained, his hair stood up on end in places, and his belt hung undone, one end torn off and dangling.

"What have you done to my little girl?" I demanded like a stereotypical father. I laughed. "I feel like I should have a shotgun to make this picture complete."

"Hi, Josef," he said, his grin widening. "I could really use a drink."

"Phew! And a new shirt, too. And take off those sandy shoes; I just had the carpets cleaned. Have you been rolling around in a brothel again?"

He chuckled, kicking off his boots in the foyer and following me to my study in stocking feet.

"No," he replied, "just hangin' out with Beth at the beach."

"Well I guess I don't have to ask how _that_ went."

He took the scotch I poured and downed it in one gulp, holding his glass out for a refill.

"Beth's a little pissed at me right now."

"Really? Do tell."

"Seems I broke one of the ground rules she set. Well, broke one of them…twice."

"Twice?"

"Well, once on top of a huge rock in the ocean, then again on the hood of the car at a scenic turnout." He grinned sheepishly, before sipping his drink. "I don't know how I'm to blame for the second time, though. She definitely started that one."

I stood looking at him in something akin to awe. First, because he was actually discussing his sex life with me, and second, because he didn't seem to be feeling the least bit guilty that he was angering Saint Beth.

"Well, you dog," I marveled. "Go you. But let me get this straight. She actually set _ground rules_ for you? _What_ ground rules?"

He began ticking them off on his fingers. "No freshies. No daddying. No sex."

I snorted derisively. "Women and their rules. God help us if we ever gave them _our _lists."

"Yeah," he concurred. "Like…no pouting."

"No crying. No _mothe_ring," I added, really getting into this conversation.

"No withholding sex."

"Uh-huh. And no leaving the toilet seat _down_."

"Seriously, Josef? That would actually make your list of rules?"

"Spoken like a man who doesn't cohabitate. Don't even get me started on drinking straight out of the blood bottles."

He laughed. "I hate to say it, my friend, but you are _so_ very married. Never thought I'd live to see the day…"

"Yeah, and if you want to live to see more of those, you'll shut the hell up," I threatened with a smile.

"At any rate," Mick continued, not frightened in the least. "Beth's Rule Number Three was a total bust. Not that I'm complaining. And not that _she_ was complaining much while we were breaking it. She's right though. Sex doesn't solve anything."

"But it doesn't hurt," I said. "Well, unless you want it to."

He smirked. "Believe me, I'm hurting in all kinds of ways tonight. I understand her trying to regain control of her own life though, Josef. After our training session—our _real_ training session," he amended at my raised eyebrow, "I think Beth realized that, at least in vampire capacity, she needs me. Personally? Well, there's no doubt that she _wants_ me, and she even told me she still loves me. She's in denial right now that we could make this work again, that she doesn't need her anger in order to maintain control. But we've got all the time in the world now, and I'm ready to wait for her. As long as she still loves me, I'll gladly be her whipping boy."

I shook my head at him, noting his bedraggled appearance and the slight smile he still wore. "You're really pathetic, Mick. A little on the masochistic side too."

He shrugged, then cringed when his wounds obviously pulled at the movement. "You always hurt the ones you love; isn't that what all the masochists say?"

"That would be the sadists," I corrected him. I felt my smile dimming. "Don't let her push you around too much, Mick. I'd like you to come out of this experience with a _little_ self-respect."

He finished the rest of his drink and rose to leave. "Don't worry about me, man. I'm a big boy. I'll wear her down, you'll see."

I got up to see him out. At the door, I watched in amusement as he slipped on his boots. "Okay, Petruchio," I grinned. "I'm looking forward to seeing how you tame your shrew. Be careful that you don't kill _yourself_ with kindness though…"

"Ha, Josef. Do I look like I'm hurting here?"

I looked again at his battered and bloody appearance with an ironic grin. I reached over and slapped him heartily on the back. He hissed in pain. "Not at all, buddy. Not at all."

BETH

I sensed that Mick was still in the house, and I was very tempted to try to eavesdrop on his conversation with Josef. Instead, I went directly to the shower to wash away the rigors of the night. As the blessedly cold water coursed down my body, I couldn't get the images of my wild behavior out of my mind. I never imagined it could be like that with Mick. I'd certainly enjoyed our sex life when I was human, had even marveled at the eroticism of being bitten by a vampire. Mick had been a giving and passionate lover then, but I knew he'd always held back, afraid he might hurt me. After tonight, I could see why.

There was no way a human female could have done what we had without ending up in the Intensive Care Unit. I looked down at the various bites, bumps and bruises on my body that were healing even now. No human male could have withstood what I had done to Mick, either. Had that really been me? I shuttered at the thought. I'd been insatiable.

After our tryst on the rock, neither of us had said a word. I pulled up my pants and left him there. He caught up with me up by the car.

"Hey," he'd said. "You learn fast. You were crazy on those rocks. You're really perfecting that 'sexy vampire jumping thing.'"

When he grinned at me, the last two years fell away, and I was that cub reporter, trying to make a name for myself, falling in love with this beautiful man who just happened to be a vampire.

"Beth?" His hazel eyes glowed slightly in the moonlight, his forehead creased in concern for me. But beneath that, I sensed the remnants of his arousal, smelled the blood on his clothes, felt the heightened sexual tension that hadn't gone away with one round on the rocks. I pulled him roughly to me, taking him by surprise just like the first time I'd kissed him. Our mouths still fused, I backed him to the car and pushed him down on the hood, listening to the loud thump as his head hit metal. Then I jumped up there with him. Before I knew it, I was yanking open his belt again, dispensing with my own pants and taking him like an animal there where anyone could have found us at any moment. I remember screaming in uncontrollable ecstasy, Mick crying out my name as he followed me over.

Later, as he drove us home, I could tell how happy Mick was; I could see it in the colorful swirls of his aura. But all I had felt afterward was numbness. He insisted I drink a couple of bags of blood from the cooler. I didn't like it as well cold, but I drank it without thinking. It filled the need in me without truly satisfying, much like the unhibited sex we'd just had. I didn't know what to say to him, so I said nothing.

I leaned my forehead against the cool tile of shower, squeezing my eyes shut, feeling my tears mingle with the spray from the shower. As much as I wanted to be mad at him now for breaking my rule, it was surely just as much my fault as his.

"Beth?" I heard Simone say my name outside the door.

"Yes," I said softly, knowing she could hear me perfectly. "I'll be right there. I was just getting out."

I turned off the water, grabbed a towel and bathrobe, and went out into my bedroom to fill Simone in on my terrible mistake.

A/N: You like? Please let me know!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I won't give anything away by introducing this chapter. I do, however, wish to thank all of you who are reviewing and favoriting this story. Your continued support means a lot!

Chapter 8

SIMONE

I watched my friend, so tormented by her anger that she couldn't see that everything was really going to be okay. I was so thankful that Mick had saved her, so happy that she could see now. I was feeling all the things she should be feeling right now, that months of built-up bitterness were blocking. I wondered if there was a vampire psychologist out there that could help her. I'd have to ask Josef about that.

Beth came into her room, a towel around her hair, wrapped in the fluffy blue guest robe from the back of the bathroom door. Her face was sullen and vulnerable, and she looked like she'd been crying. Of course, I'd smelled earlier what she and Mick had been up to, and secretly I was ecstatic about it. But if she wasn't, well, that's what mattered, isn't it?

"Beth? Are you okay?"

She lay down on the bed, looking blankly up at the ceiling.

"I don't know," she replied softly. "Everything is so…surreal."

"I remember that feeling," I commiserated. "It goes away after a month or two. How was your time with Mick tonight?"

"The vampire jumping stuff was cool," she said. "I can't believe I can do some of the things I did."

I smiled. "There's nothing like that rush of strength, especially once you learn to control it."

"Yes," she agreed with a slight smile. Well, that was promising. I waited for her to say more, to tell me about what went on with Mick—besides the obvious. A minute of silence later, and she began to talk.

"Mick and I—well, we, uh, had sex tonight."

I paused a beat, just to get the happiness out of my voice. "And, was this a good thing?"

She laughed humorlessly. "Depends on what you mean by that. Was the sex good? Well, it was so amazing I can't even think about it without wanting him again. Was it a mistake that we did it?" She sighed. "I don't know, Simone. I just don't know."

"Do you still love him?" To me, that was all that mattered. I only wish she saw it that way.

"Yes," she said in a small voice. I watched from my vantage point in the blue chair as a few stray tears slipped down her cheeks. I got up and sat on the bed beside her.

"Beth," I began. "I want to say something to you that might risk our friendship, but as your friend, I think you need to hear it."

She sat up, wariness in her watery eyes. "If you're going to tell me I need to forgive Mick, I'll just say right now that it's easier said than done."

"Well, I hope you do forgive him. But, more than that, you need to accept who you are, whether Mick's in the picture or not. You're a _vampire_, Beth—"I was sad to see her cringe just hearing the term. "this is your life now. You can't hide from it anymore."

"I'm not! That was me earlier tonight, jumping from rock to rock like a mountain goat on steroids, remember? I've accepted I need training, and that tradition says my sire is the best one to do that."

"Yes, but Mick isn't just your sire. That's another reality that you need to accept."

"Believe me," she said, "I learned all about that tonight."

"Well—" I began, ready to go in for the killer advice, when my cell phone interrupted with its soft vibration. I pulled it out of my pocket and sighed when I saw who it was. "Dammit! I'm sorry, Beth. I have to take this. It's a client, and we go to trial Monday."

She smiled through her tears and waved me off. "Go ahead. I'm not going anywhere."

I leaned down and kissed her cheek, then left her to deal with a different crisis.

BETH

When Simone left, I had the overwhelming desire to be outside. The walls in this house, while beautiful, were closing in on me, and once again I craved the freedom of the outdoors. I threw on my pajamas, even though it would be several hours yet before I was really tired, and walked to the sliding glass door. Every room on the second floor opened up to a wide terrace, from which you could see for miles on clear nights. Before I even opened the door, I could smell the scent of cigar smoke and Josef. I hesitated, but realized I didn't want to stay mad at him anymore. For one thing, he wasn't responsible for any of my problems.

"Hey Blondie," he said quietly, the second my door opened. "How do you find a blind man in a nudist colony?"

I smiled in spite of myself, walking barefooted toward where he stood at the railing. "I don't know," I replied.

"Oh…it's not hard."

A snort of laughter escaped me at the slightly risqué joke. "That was really bad." Abruptly, my eyes watered in remembrance of the daily jokes he would call me with…when I was human.

He took a drink from the glass of whiskey he'd set on the railing, then puffed on his cigar until the tip glowed red. It clashed a little with the dark blue aura I saw surrounding him. "That was supposed to be the blind joke of the day yesterday," he continued. "Glad to have made you laugh, even though you aren't blind anymore. I guess a good joke is funny no matter what."

We were both quiet then, looking out at the lights of Los Angeles that spread out far below the hills where his house was nestled. I felt the sudden urge to jump off the veranda and run down into the city, but I was afraid of what I might do around humans if I got too hungry.

"You did quite a number on Mick tonight," he said after a few minutes. "I've haven't seen him so happy since before your accident."

"Just like a vampire," I said, hearing the bitterness in my voice. "Straight for the jugular."

He chuckled. "Welcome to my world, baby." His tone turned serious, and he took a fortifying drink. "He's not going to give up, you know, and a determined Mick is irresistible. Resistance is futile, you'll see. You may as well leave that pity party you've been at for months now, and join us in the land of the partially living."

"I haven't been at a pity—" I began defensively, but Josef gave me a sideways glance and I stopped denying the obvious truth. "How did you know?" I asked instead.

"Why do you think I called you every day? I could hear the despair in your tone grow deeper every day, Beth. You were foundering despite your wonderful act to the contrary. And I was running out of jokes. You really weren't fooling any of us who know you, though. But you're fooling yourself if you think Mick would have left you."

I would never again underestimate Josef's powers of perception. "It would have been better for him if he had," I said. "And look at me now. It would have been better for me if I'd died of that aneurism."

"Bullshit," he said shortly. "How often to people in this world get a second chance? A chance at a new life? As much as I love being a vampire, I know it's not always that convenient, but it's better than the alternative. And tell me, my young fledgling, if being human is so damned perfect, why are humans just dying to get out of it?"

"It's not perfect, it's—"

"It's what you knew for twenty-eight years," he finished for me. "I understand. But this is what you're going to be for what will likely be centuries. You have the opportunity to start from scratch. Don't waste it. Eternity is a long time to be bitter and angry."

His words hung in the air along with his cigar smoke, and I felt something in my dead heart shift a little, but I wasn't willing to let go of my justified rage just yet.

"Mick told me once you were turned against your will, just like he was," I said, trying to take the emphasis off me for a while.

"Yeah, that was definitely a bite and run. To this day, I have no idea why the man would have turned me and just left me. I mean, he could have just drained me and let me die. Maybe he was planning to come back but something distracted him. I don't know. I'll never know. But the lesson from my sad tale is that a new vampire without a sire is a bloodbath waiting to happen. I killed half of Prague until I learned control, before I was run out of town by pitchfork wielding townsfolk. You're lucky to have someone like Mick to transition you."

"But weren't you bitter? Angry you'd become a monster?"

He shrugged. "Maybe for about ten seconds. I didn't see the point after that. Besides, I had a lot of fun in those early days. I liked my power. But I did things that would shock you to hear, things I wouldn't even tell Simone. I'm actually a little regretful of some of those, but I'm not like Mick, willing to devote my life making up for it. Hating what you are is pretty self-indulgent, don't you think? That's why, after you and Mick got together, I was so relieved that he was starting to pull out of his self-imposed prison of pain. He had something positive to live for. He had a new optimism that was making him see the benefits of being a vamp, rather than all the downsides—though what those are, I really don't know." His teeth flashed in the moonlight. "Mick even allowed himself to be turned back to a vampire after he took the ex's cure. That proved to me that in his mind, the ability to protect you far outweighed his self-loathing. That's why he felt he could turn you. He's finally accepted that what he is isn't a curse anymore. It's a new chance at life—a chance he gave you. Let me save you fifty years of the pain Mick went through before he came to this conclusion. Look at your turning as a gift. He wants to be with you forever—and that's not just something a vampire does lightly."

He reached over and took my left hand from where it rested on the railing. He held it toward the moonlight, and the ring I wore glittered faintly.

"Nice," he commented on the symbol of my commitment to Mick. "You women and your mixed messages. Don't keep his hopes up if this doesn't mean anything to you anymore. But I assume it's more than a pretty bauble to you, or you wouldn't still be wearing it."

I studied my ring a moment, remembering the brief warmth I'd felt at actually seeing it for the first time after Mick turned me. I'd been blind when he'd put it on my finger, and as angry as I was, I couldn't seem to find the strength to take it off now. I loved Mick. I realized with a start that I wasn't ready to let that go yet.

"Love isn't the issue, Josef. You should know that more than anyone. Love just makes things more…complicated."

"Well that's an understatement." He laughed, no doubt remembering his own rocky road to love. "Another thing I've learned these past four hundred years—that forever is a hell of a long time to be alone. If there's really a curse to being a vampire, that is it. Seeing the people you love die. Mick has been pulling his retro hair out suffering over the thought that you were going to die a lot sooner than him. He doesn't have to worry about that now. And with Simone, neither do I. I've been truly in love twice in my long life, Beth. I lost Sarah. I know you lost Josh. You and I were both given love again—love that can literally last forever—if we work at it. And you, sweetheart, you have to first pull your pretty head out of your shapely ass and appreciate what you've been given." He puffed on his cigar for emphasis.

I stood there, looking at him with my mouth hanging open. No one had ever spoken to me like that. Well, no one that I really cared about. My first instinct was to knock him over the railing, but as the seconds ticked by, and Josef stood in contented silence, smoking his stogy and sipping his scotch, I went with my second instinct. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"I love you, Josef Kostan," I said, tears rolling down my face.

He held up his left hand, showing off the ring Simone had put on his own finger three months before. "You had your chance, Buzzwire."

"What's this?" Simone asked from the doorway of their bedroom. "I thought I didn't have to worry about you two anymore." She was kidding, but she walked over to Josef and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, effectively re-establishing her claim.

"You know," Josef said, leaning back into his wife's embrace. "Before Beth came out here earlier, I was thinking. Three vampires in a house. They can hear everything that is said, can smell everything too. There's gotta be a joke in there somewhere."

"Are these vampires Polish?" Simone asked.

"No," he said, his smile widening. "Because that would just write itself."

We stayed outside a while longer, looking down at the lights of LA and making jokes like we used to. I found my eyes continually drawn to the part of the city where I knew Mick's apartment was. Somewhere out there, a beautiful man waited for me. I didn't want him to have to wait forever.

A/N: *sniff sniff*. I hope you're feeling the love now. Please review and let me feel it too ;)


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Oh, I forgot to apologize for Josef's political incorrectness in the last chapter. So, I'm sorry to any blind and/or Polish people out there if you were offended. What can I tell ya? Josef has a mind of his own. Also, there is more "M" material in this chapter, which I've designated by MMMMMMMMMM, then resumed the "T" rated story with a TTTTTTTTTTTTT, for your convenience. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

MICK

It was only noon, but I couldn't wait to see Beth. I hoped she was awake, and I knew Josef likely was. The man just didn't sleep. Niles must not have arrived yet, since the lord of the manor answered the door himself.

"Awww, you shouldn't have," he said, looking at the bouquet of lavender roses I held.

"Don't worry, I didn't." But I knew I was grinning like an idiot.

"Well someone's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today," he said with a knowing smirk. "But you're a little early yet, Casanova. The ladies are still abed."

I tried to tamp down my disappointment, but Josef must have seen something in my eyes, for he smiled as I walked past him into the house.

"How is she?" I asked, trying not to sound too anxious. This question encompassed many things. _Is she still angry? Has she had adaptation problems? Does she want to have sex again?_

"I think you'll see some improvement. Actually, she chose to try to sleep in the freezer in her own bedroom last night, so I got to sleep with my wife in my own bed."  
"Was she afraid?" I asked, worried that the freezer might feel a little too coffin-like for her.

"What's with all the questions? What am I, her babysitter? Why don't you just go up and ask her yourself?"

I looked longingly at the stairs that led to the bedrooms. "I don't want to wake her…"

"Sure you do."

Last night with Beth at the beach was one of the best nights of my life, and I wasn't just talking about the sex. Okay, it was mostly because of the sex, but the experience of teaching her to use her newfound skills, the knowledge that she wasn't going to get killed at any moment as a fragile human could—all of this made me feel so free. Free from fear. Free to show her physically how I truly felt rather than holding myself back like I always had to do when she was human. It was a revelation to me that any residual guilt I had felt about her turning was fading away. I still felt bad taking away some of the benefits of being human, but I figured, as long as we had each other, we could find ways to cope together. Now, if only Beth could experience this freedom too.

Josef waved his hand in front of my face. "Mick? Mick? For the love of God, quit thinking about it and just go get her already."

"Okay, if you insist." I gave him a grin and bounded up the stairs.

It wasn't difficult to sniff her out, so I strolled unerringly down the hall and stood outside her door. I tapped once, but there was no answer, so I turned the doorknob and went in. Her freezer was in the darkest corner of the room, and I walked over to it, peering through the clear glass top to admire my sleeping princess. Unlike me, she wore clothing to bed—well, a tanktop and panties. My mind clouded over with a crazy mix of lust and love, and all I wanted to do was fling open the freezer lid and climb in with her. Instead, I whispered her name, not wanting to startle her so much that she sat up suddenly and banged her head on the lid. I'd done that a few times, and it hurt like hell.

Her eyes flew open, and she looked around her bed, slightly disoriented. I heard her gasp, then her eyes met mine and she…grinned. I opened the lid for her and she sat up in wonder.

"Mick," she began self-consciously, smoothing down her hair. "I, uh, didn't expect to see you here."

I hesitated, bowled over by the almost overpowering attraction I felt just looking at her. I reached out and brushed away a few ice crystals that had formed on her cheeks, feeling a spark of awareness at the touch of her cool skin. "I wanted to see how you were doing after…last night."

"I can't believe I slept all night in a freezer," she commented, choosing not to take my conversation prompt. She stood now, and I held her hand as she stepped over the side, then down the three steps to the floor. "I feel so refreshed. Surprisingly more than I ever have in a regular bed."

I smiled gently at her, still maintaining my hold on her hand. "You're feeling the rejuvenating qualities of the deep freeze. A freezer room is great, but nothing like the intense cold of a smaller freezer…"

"Yeah…"

The topic fizzled out, and her eyes dropped to my other hand. "Are those for me?"

"Oh," I said, remembering the flowers, "of course." I presented them to her and she let go of my hand to hold the bouquet. She brought them to her nose and inhaled. "Wow. The fragrance is so much more intense. I never realized how many different scents can make up just one. No wonder perfume making is such a talent." She was babbling a bit, and I smiled at our shared nervousness. She realized how she must sound, and stopped, hesitated, and said: "They're beautiful, Mick. Thank you."

We stared at each other a moment, the events of the night before forefront on our minds. I remembered how we had moved together in passion, how she had been so aggressive and powerful. I shivered slightly, just thinking about it, again sensing our mutual arousal. Her eyes were large and very blue, but starting to lean a little toward vampire silver.

"You must be hungry," I said reluctantly interrupting the moment. I reached into my leather jacket's inside pocket and pulled out the insulated travel mug I'd brought her. It was the good stuff—rare, AB negative, donated fresh this morning. Her eyes widened at the sight, and she took the mug gratefully, opening the lid. I'm sure she'd just intended to take a tentative, ladylike sip, but her young feeding instincts kicked in, and she downed it like a college student at a keg party.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "But that tasted really good."

I took the empty mug and the flowers from her hands, setting them both on a nearby table.

"Beth," I said, suddenly tired of the inane small talk. I reached for her hands and pulled her into my arms. I was so happy she let me, that I only hesitated a second before I found her mouth with mine. She tasted sweetly of her breakfast, of cold, of Beth. I was surprised at how familiar she still seemed, even though her physiology had been altered so radically. She was still My Beth; death hadn't changed the fundamental essence of her. I drank her in, exploring her mouth leisurely, rediscovering what I had been missing so acutely. She returned my kiss wholeheartedly, and her hands began to wander. They ranged beneath my jacket, up under my shirt to my back, and I wanted to purr from the feel of her icy soft hands on my bare skin.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

My own hands found her breasts, braless beneath her tiny shirt, and I shuttered at how beautiful they were, firm beneath my palms, nipples tantalizingly tight with excitement. I let go of her lips to trail open-mouthed kisses down her neck, feeling her shiver at the enhanced erogenous zone of the vampire. I lingered there until she moaned, and her hands came round to unbuckle my belt.

"Bed," she breathed.

She backed me to it, now working at the buttons of my fly. When I felt the bed behind my knees, I let myself fall backward, taking Beth with me. She became a flurry of activity, removing my boots and socks, pulling down my jeans, pulling me up again like a rag doll so she could take off my jacket and shirt. I let her have her way with me, grinning at her enthusiasm. I lay naked before her, and she spent a few agonizing moments studying my body as I'd once seen her look at a box of chocolates.

"Take off your clothes," I said, nodding toward her skimpy underwear.

"Are you ordering me around now? That was a violation of Rule Number Two, if I remember correctly." But there was mischief in her eyes, as she seemed to consider my request.

"_Please_ take your clothes off," I amended. "And you don't have to call me _Daddy…_unless you want to, that is." I grinned at my own joke.

"Well…since you asked so nicely…"

Slowly, Beth pulled up her white tanktop, then stood before me in just her nude-colored panties, and I felt myself begin to pant in anticipation. Her hands went to the flimsy fabric as she pulled first one side down, then the other, alternating sides as she brought the tiny garment over her shapely hips and slipped them off at her feet. All the while, her eyes held the sensual promise of what we were about to do. She kneeled on the bed, and let her long, blonde hair fall over my thighs. I closed my eyes at the feathery sensation, then nearly jumped out of my skin as I felt her nails sweep up and down my erection.

"Jesus! Beth."

She chuckled softly, and I groaned at the new strength in her hands, the tightness of her mouth that added to the intensity. But I didn't want to just be passive in this. I sat up a little and reached for her hips, pulling her around so that I could taste her at the same time that she was tasting me. I felt her gasp against me as I began to lick her with slow, deep sweeps of my tongue. We continued in this way, both trying to focus on pleasuring the other, while we slowly drove each other crazy. When I sensed we were both on the precipice, I lifted her up and set her down upon me, driving into her with a force that took us both by surprise.

I watched her toned back flex as she straddled me, taking me deep inside, raising and lowering herself with increasing tempo until she shuttered around me with a cry. I followed soon after, rising up on my hands to deepen my strokes, then collapsing on my back with a ragged moan. She dismounted and lay beside me on the bed, shaking with tremors of aftershock.

When our bodies began to calm, I turned on my side to look at her. "I think we need to talk, don't you?"

She rolled her body to face me, smiling shyly. "I didn't expect that to happen. I mean, not again. So soon."

My hand came out to touch her face, to brush back a lock of gold that hung in her eyes. After our exertion, I knew we both needed to feed, but I just wanted to savor this moment, and talk about what it really meant to her, because there was no doubt in my mind what it meant to me.

"I just have to know, Beth. Is this just sex to you?" I ran a nervous hand through my tousled hair. "God, I feel like a teenage girl after her first time in the back seat."

Beth waggled the fingers of her left hand, drawing attention to her engagement ring. "I thought we were already going steady, Mickey," she said slyly.

I laughed at our banter, having missed it so much lately. I'd gotten action from her; I wanted to hear her words now. "Seriously," I ventured softly. "Are we gonna be okay?"

Her hands rested on either side of my face, and she moved closer, looking deeply into my eyes. "This isn't just sex, Mick. We made love. I love you. I want to be with you. And—"now her eyes filled with tears, her lips trembling in preparation for what she was about to say-"I'm sorry, Mick. When I think of the things I said to you, I'm ashamed. What's worse, I meant it when I said it. I can only say I was so bitter, after months of blindness, so angry with you for allowing one more thing to happen against my will, that I felt broken inside, paralyzed by fear."

I reached out and wiped her tears away with my thumbs, leaning in to touch my lips lightly to hers.

"Don't be sorry. I understand, Beth. I've been there—maybe not the blindness stuff, but the turning—I know how confusing and traumatic it can be. The ranting of a newly turned vampire isn't enough to scare me away."

"But we have to deal with the emotions I was having even before my turning, Mick. I was pushing you away. If we are going to be together, I need to be able to feel like I can lean on you, rather than be smothered by you. I need independence to survive, it's as simple as that."

I looked at her, really seeing her for the first time since I turned her, and not just through the eyes of lust. "I know, and I'll try harder to give you that freedom. When you were human, your safety was paramount to me. Humans are so fragile, and I'd gotten you involved in the dangers of the vampire world. Hell, that involvement led to your blindness. My smothering was guilt and over-protectiveness, I know that now. But we are both free from that. Now that you're a vampire, I don't have to worry so much. Okay, I won't be able to ever give up on trying to protect you, but once you are fully trained, I'll know that if I can't be there, you'll be able to take care of yourself."

She looked a little skeptical still. "No more sitting in your car watching my house twenty-four-seven?"

"How did you-?" She raised an eyebrow. "Okay, no. I'll stop that, I promise."

She was the one to kiss me now, and we embraced, naked on the bed, our bodies totally attuned. I felt her pulling away a little, saw new tears in her eyes. "What is it?" I asked, sensing there was more she wanted to get out.

She looked down and away from me a minute. "I do need to ask your forgiveness for one more thing."

"You already have it," I said. "You have done nothing that I could not forgive."

"Still—I called you something terrible. Something that you don't deserve, something I know hurt you profoundly."

I knew what she meant. She'd called me a monster, something I'd called myself on numerous occasions, before I fell in love with Beth. It had hurt, no doubt about it, and I would always consider myself that, at least the vampire I was in those early days.

"You are not, and could never be a monster, Mick. It's not in you. You are the kindest, most loving man I have ever known. You care about people. You always try to do the right thing. I was a monster to have said that to you. Can you forgive me for that? Really? Deep in your soul?"

I brought her hand to my lips, closing my eyes as I kissed her ring. "I used to be a monster, Beth. But you took that image away from my mind the day I knew you loved me. How could a beast be loved by a beauty like you, right?" I smiled into her eyes. "Because of you, I'm okay with myself, now. Would I want to be human again? In a heartbeat," I whispered ironically. "But if you can love who I am, I can accept myself. You have given me so many gifts, Beth, and that's the most valuable one I've ever received. As I said—there's nothing to forgive."

She kissed me and wrapped her arms around me. "Thank you for that. Josef told me I should get my head out of my ass and appreciate the gift _you've_ given me."

"He what?" I said, pulling away from her, suddenly enraged. "I ought to beat the holy hell out of him for talking to you that way."

She laughed, pulling me back to nestle against her body. "Don't. I needed to hear it. He's right. You _have_ given me a gift. I'm alive. I can see. We'll deal with the stuff I've lost later. For now, I just want to learn from you all that I've gained…_Daddy_." Her eyes sparkled with familiar mischief.

When she said it, somehow it didn't make me feel paternal at all, as sick as that might sound. I rolled us over until I was on top of her. "I love you," I said simply, dropping kisses on her lips and on her cheeks.

"I love you too."  
We were just getting started with round two when there came a knock on the door.

"Niles," whispered Beth. I grinned at her honed senses.

"Yes," I called.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir, but Mr. Kostan thought you might need some liquid refreshment. He also asked me to remind Miss Turner that Dr. Fontaine will be arriving at three o'clock this afternoon."

"Thank you, Niles," said Beth.

"Yes, miss. I'll just leave your tray outside the door, if that is acceptable."

"Thanks," I said. "That's fine." When the butler's footsteps receded, I looked askance at Beth. "Who's Dr. Fontaine?"

"My aura guru, as Josef calls him. Either that, or the Witch Doctor. He's supposed to help me understand what I'm seeing now."

"Well, that should be helpful. Does it still bother you so much, seeing these auras?"

"Not as much, now that I've done some research. Right now, for example, your aura is a mixture of bright yellow and…" she squinted a little, as if trying to decide. "…and pink. Happiness and love, if my sources are right."

"Your sources are _very_ right," I said, resuming where we'd left off before Niles had arrived.

"Hey, loverboy," she interrupted my wandering hands and seeking lips. "I can smell that blood now, so if you want me to concentrate on you and not second breakfast, we should both stop and have some _liquid refreshment."_

"Whatever you desire, my love," I said, reluctantly moving off her and walking naked to the door. I peeked outside, and, seeing no one, bent and picked up the tray containing the thoughtful snack our host had provided.

We drank from our individual cups on the bed, our eyes devouring each other at the same time.

"So, how did Josef know we needed a drink?"

I raised an eyebrow. "He knows what we've been doing, Beth."

"Oh, yeah. And…ewww."

I laughed at her wrinkled nose. "You knew before that vampires can sense that stuff. I'm sure they heard us clearly too. Don't tell me you haven't smelled what _they've_ been up to." She started, suddenly realizing what she might have sensed, herself.

"That's it. I'm moving out of here."

I paused mid-drink, looking at her seriously. "You mean that?"

"Yes. Tonight, if possible."

"Where are you planning to go?" I asked neutrally, not wanting to pressure her. She didn't know that I'd had a freezer delivered to my apartment just this morning.

"Well, wherever I can find a freezer, I guess."

I smiled. "You're in luck. There's an extra at my place, just perfect for you."

She leaned over and kissed me. "Is that an invitation, St. John?"

"Mi casa es su casa, like I always say." It was all that I could do not to clap like a child with glee.

She took the empty mugs from our hands and set them on the bedside table.

"I love it when you speak Spanish to me," she said, pinning me with her lithe body.

"In that case," I said, "Quiero enterrar dentro de ti y hacerte el amor para siempre."

She grinned, then took me completely by surprise with her hertofore unknown talent:

"Su congelador o la mía?"

A/N: Hope my high school Spanish was okay. Mick said something to the effect of: "I want to bury myself inside you and and make love to you forever." And Beth replied: "Your freezer or mine?"

There have been questions regarding more information on Beth's new vision. That will be covered in the next chapter, I promise. Thanks in advance for any reviews you might bless me with. All are appreciated!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: This chapter moves the story on to a different stage. I could have made two separate stories, but I haven't written a multi-fic for "Moonlight" in awhile, so I thought I'd just plug right along. Hope you don't mind! Thanks again to all those who have reviewed and favorited. That is so very kind of you!

Chapter 10

BETH

Just before Dr. Fontaine was due to arrive, Mick and I were dressed and smiling, waiting on the couch in Josef's study. Josef himself sat in his chair, nursing a Bloody Carrie, rolling his eyes occasionally as Mick and I cuddled, which was ironic, given that Simone was sitting in his lap.

"I'd say that you two should get a room, but you've had one all afternoon and that didn't seem to get it out of your systems."

"Sorry, Josef," Mick said, smiling into my eyes as we remembered all the ways we'd enjoyed said room. "And I'm happy to tell you that you can have your room back. Beth's moving in with me."

"Really?" Simone asked excitedly. "I'm so happy for you both!"

"Great news," Josef commented. "I was beginning to wonder whether I was running a nursery or a brothel. It was getting very confusing around here."

"Well, thank you both for putting me up the last couple of days while I got my head together," I told my friends. "Oh, and thanks also for all the pep talks. I needed to hear what you were telling me."

"Speaking of which," Mick began, winding up to chastise Josef.

"Mick—"

"No, let me finish, Beth. While I'm grateful to you for helping me with Beth, in the future, you're to talk to my fiancé with respect. You hear me…_buddy_?"

Josef chuckled. "Why, Mick, whatever could you mean?"

"You are not to reference any part of Beth's anatomy in any negative way, understand?"

"Ohhhh," Josef said, looking at his wife. "He's talking about me telling Beth to get her head out of her ass. I actually thought that was a very positive thing to say, don't you, my love?"

"You didn't," Simone said, slapping his arm.

"Hey! I was dispensing some much-needed tough love. Why is everyone ganging up on me?"

"I'm not," I told him.

"Well, thank you, Beth. And you're welcome, by the way. Now that you and Mick are participating in your own version of tough love, we can all start getting on with our lives here."

Right on cue, the doorbell rang. A moment later, Niles led Dr. Fontaine into the room. Simone politely disentangled herself from her husband's lap as we all stood to welcome my new guru.

When the doctor entered the room, Simone and I looked at each other in mutual surprise. The man was gorgeous. He looked like a young Alec Baldwin-tall, dark, and handsome, bright, crystal blue eyes, with a hint of humor in them just to make them sparkle. And his smile—a thousand watts at least. The men noticed how Simone and I seemed a bit giddy at the sight of him, and they weren't happy at all.

"Josef," he said, his smooth voice just adding to his perfection. And I detected a faint accent, as if he'd been away from his home country for a long time. Was it…Australian? This guy just got better and better. The two men shook hands.

"Richard," Josef greeted. "Please, allow me to introduce my wife, Simone." He watched in irritation as Simone's hand disappeared into the charming visitor's.

"What a lovely woman, Josef. You're a lucky man." His killer smile, directed upon her, made Simone speechless.

Josef's eyes narrowed, but he continued his host duties and turned to me. "This is Beth Turner, the newest member of our community, and your protégé, should you both agree."

I held out my hand and he took it lightly in his. I squinted a little at him, seeing his aura of orange and red. I think that was a good thing, but I somehow couldn't focus on what I'd learned already with this man holding my hand.

"An honor, Beth. I'll enjoy working with you." I was caught in his brilliant gaze, my smile a little goofy.

"Yes, me too," I managed. Then, it hit me-his smell, his cool hand. "You're a vampire, aren't you?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound too rude.

Richard Fontaine just laughed. "Why, yes, Beth, that I am. You're learning already, aren't you?"

Mick cleared his throat beside me.

Josef smirked. "And this is Beth's _fiancé,_ Mick St. John."

He let go of my hand in what seemed to be a reluctant manner, and turned to Mick. "Mr. St. John. I've heard about you. It's a wonder we haven't met. I guess we just revolve in different circles."

Mick shook his hand, his eyes narrowed in a similar way to Josef's. I caught Simone's eye, and we both tried hard not to laugh at their jealousy.

"I guess so. Josef tell me you're a professor of what is it—Metaphysics?—at UCLA."

"Yes. Metaphysical Research. I study all things related to the intricacies of the mind. I'm very interested in Beth's case. I've never heard of a vampire developing the ability to see auras after being turned."

Josef motioned that everyone sit, and he nodded to the waiting Niles in an unspoken bid for refreshments.

Fontaine looked over at me from his place in one of Josef's leather chairs. "It's my understanding that you'd had a brain injury shortly before your turning?"

"Yes," I replied. "I'd been damaged in my occipital lobe, resulting in blindness. It looked like it was going to be permanent, before I, well, had an aneurism. But actually, I do remember seeing auras as a child, but the ability faded away as I got older."

He nodded. "It faded because there was no one there to help you focus, or to understand what you were seeing. You might have continued to have that gift had you had the opportunity to hone it. Apparently, your accident triggered the ability again, and it must have manifested much more strongly when you were turned."

"That's what we figured," Mick concurred, exhibiting the typical male trait of not wanting to be forgotten with his mate in the room. He reached for my hand to lace his fingers through mine, a further reminder of his possessiveness.

"Hmmm," Fontaine said, leaning forward to look at me more closely. "Could you describe for me exactly what you see now?"

"Sure." I went on to describe the different colors that shone around those I saw, how sometimes there were various swirling patterns, or rays that emanated from their auras like from the sun. As I spoke, the doctor nodded and hummed a few more times. Then, he sat back, tapping his sensual lower lip in thought.

I saw Josef and Mick exchanging glances of…amusement? I hope it wasn't because they thought I was just exaggerating. But no, I realized, they were just making fun of poor Dr. Fontaine. I squeezed Mick's hand in annoyance, and he looked sheepish before plastering on a serious expression. Josef just grinned.

"Tell me, Beth. What colors do you see around each of us in this room?"

"Well…you, Dr. Fontaine—"

"Richard, please."

"Richard," I smiled, as Mick seemed to mentally roll his eyes. "your aura seems to be orange and blue."

"Well, that's highly complementary," he smiled in return. "That says that I relate well to others and that I am highly empathic."

"That's good to know," I said. "Mick's aura is also blue right now, but it changes. Earlier today it was yellow and pink."

"Awww…he must have been very happy this morning."

Josef chuckled, and Mick looked a little embarrassed. "Yes," Mick said tightly. "Beth makes me _very_ happy. Quite often, actually."

Richard took his meaning and his lips twitched in response.

"And Simone? Well, she always seems to be yellow."

"Aww…the lovely Simone must always be a happy, supportive person, yes?"

"Yes," said Josef territorially, looking upon his wife with pride. "That sounds true enough."

Simone smiled at her husband, and we witnessed a very intimate look passing between them.

"And Josef? What do you see when you look at him?"

"Well, that's an easy one. He is almost always red, sometimes green."

"Not a surprise, from what I know of Josef. Red means power; green, tenacity. Seems to me, with what we know of your friends here, you are accurately seeing the manifestations of their personalities and emotions exhibited in their individual auras."

"Great," said Mick.

"Wow," I said. "That's amazing. So, can you teach me to interpret them?"  
"Of course. Once you learn to understand what you are seeing, you can accurately predict when someone is lying or being disingenuous toward you or others. You can tell when someone is depressed or angry, even when their actions or expressions say otherwise. This is a valuable skill, and great gift to have. Combined with your vampire abilities to detect biological responses, you'll be quite the behavior specialist. I suggest you come to my office every day for awhile."

"Not a good idea," Mick said. "She's newly turned, and shouldn't be out among humans yet."

"I see. Of course. I could come here, if that's acceptable to Josef."

"Actually," I'll be staying with Mick, now," I said. "He lives downtown. Would it be alright if he comes to your place, Mick?"

He looked at me, saw the pleading in my eyes, and I felt the tension ease in him.

"Whatever Beth wants will be fine," he said, and the love I saw shining from him made me want to kiss him senseless in front of everyone.

"Thanks," I whispered. He squeezed my hand gently in response.

"Very well, then. I'll just get the address from Mick here and be by tomorrow afternoon."

We small talked a few minutes more, then Dr. Fontaine prepared to take his leave. He suavely took the ladies' hands and made us feel as if we were the only ones in the room for the brief moment he looked at us. The men said their cool goodbyes, and Niles was summoned to escort him out.

"Boy, how 'bout that snake charmer," Mick commented, downing the rest of his scotch-laden blood.

"Mick—" I began.

Josef laughed. "He had those women eating out of his hand. I didn't think glamouring was real, but he sure had you girls drinking the Kool-Aid."

"You're just jealous that he's so well-educated," Simone chided. "He really seems to know what he's talking about. I thought it was fascinating."

"Actually," Josef conceded, "Fontaine's an alright guy. I trust him, or I wouldn't have let him in my house. A real ladies' man though."

"Pot, meet Kettle," I murmured. Josef heard my words and grinned.

"As for the educated part," Mick added, "Fontaine's got nothing on Josef here. Do you know how many degrees Josef has?"

"Mick, please. You're embarrassing me." But he didn't seem embarrassed at all.

"Last you told me, Josef, you had about twenty-five, right?"

He shrugged. "Something like that."

Simone looked genuinely surprised. "Well, I figured you had a business degree, obviously. What else?"

"I've been around a long time, darling; a guy's gotta have some hobbies. You really want to know?"

"Come on, Josef, you're dying to brag, I know it." Simon found her way back to her husband's lap.

He began listing them. "Business, law, psychology, British Literature, Philosophy, Greek, Latin, French, Japanese…" The list went on to include several different languages, arts, and sciences, until he reached the last: Master Chef, Le Cordon Bleu.

"You're joking, right? Why would a vampire need to know how to cook?" I wondered.

"Just something I was interested in, once." He glanced away from Simone, but Mick caught that he was clearly hiding something.

Mick laughed, sudden realization crossing his features. "You were trying to get a woman, weren't you?"

Josef, caught, merely smiled in remembrance. "Ahhhh…Madeline. She asked me one day to go for a stroll around her parsley patch, and I was hooked. Was she ever a tasty dish. Well worth learning how to make a proper rue." He became aware that Simone was giving him a look of disgust and he abruptly finished his walk down memory lane. "Thanks, Mick," he finished, taking a drink, his expression now pained at how Simone would certainly make Josef pay for that one later.

"Anytime, pal." Mick smirked.

"Anyway…" I began, attempting to lead the subject back to less dangerous ground. "Thank you for introducing me to Dr. Fontaine. I'm really looking forward to his instruction."

"I don't blame you a bit," Simone said saucily, exacting a little revenge already. "He can examine my aura anytime."

Josef groaned and put his face into his hands.

MICK

_Three days later…_

"I've got a client coming over in a little while," I told Beth, spooning my naked body to hers. "He's human. You might want to stay as far away as you can, upstairs."

She'd picked up more of her things from her place, and we'd settled into a lovely routine in mine. Training sessions at night, this time in the mostly deserted downtown area. Making love in every room in my apartment. Sleeping in our side-by-side freezers. The bed, however, was still our favorite place these days.

She turned over in my arms. "Oh, come on, Mick. I've got to do it sometime. How else am I going to learn? I'll drink a lot of blood before he comes, and I'll stay out of your office. Just let me meet him, or at least be in the same room with him a moment. You'll be there to stop me from doing something stupid."

I snorted a little. "I couldn't stop you from doing stupid things when you were human. Now, with new vamp strength? That could be a tall order."

She punched me in the arm, and damned if it didn't smart. "See?" I said, rubbing my arm in confirmation of my words. She rolled me over and pinned my arms to the bed.

"I could beat you up if you _don't_ let me have my way," she said, a wicked gleam in her eye. "Besides needing to test myself around humans, I want to apply what I've learned from Richard."

Dr. Fontaine had also become part of our daily routine, as annoying as it was to have a guy who looked like a movie star visiting my fiancé every day. But he seemed to be helping Beth, and she was very excited to try out her skills.

"I told you, Daryl, Carrie, Logan and Guillermo are coming by tomorrow night for cocktails. You can study _their_ auras all night if you want."

Our friends were anxious to officially welcome Beth into the family.

"But Mick…" she said, wriggling against my burgeoning hardness, leaning down to nip at my neck with her blunt human teeth. "Let me meet someone new. A human. I'll be so grateful…"

I grinned, and let her try for another half hour to convince me. I didn't tell her that I'd already decided to allow it the second she'd asked.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Simon Partridge knocked on my office door promptly at four, and I let him in. He was a business man in his forties, and claimed never to have needed a private investigator before. Beth stood hesitantly in the doorway leading to the rest of my apartment, and I could tell she was nervous at her first human contact.

"This is my fiancé, Beth," I told him. "She's also my uh, partner, so you don't need to worry about her discretion."

He held out his hand and Beth looked at me anxiously. I nodded briefly, and she shook it politely. I saw her nostrils flare at his scent, her eyes widen as she clearly heard the blood pumping through his veins. She gulped, then cleared her throat.

"A pleasure," she said a little shakily.  
"Beth won't be joining us for this meeting, but I'll fill her in later. She has other things to attend to in the other room. Right, sweetheart?"

"Oh, yeah. Right."

She excused herself, but before she left, she had a strange look on her face as she looked at Partridge, like she'd seen something she didn't like.

I shut the door to the rest of the apartment, and indicated that Partridge should sit in the chair across from my desk.

"What can I help you with today, Mr. Partridge?"

"My business partner is missing," he said, "and so is a lot of money from our bank account. I think he might have met with foul play. There's not enough evidence for the police to get involved, so I came to you."

I took the basic information I'd need to begin my search, and he left about twenty minutes later.

After I let him out, I went back into the living room where I found Beth by the front door, watching as Partridge walked past the security monitor.

"You did well, Beth," I complimented. "How did you feel?"

"Okay," she said, zooming the camera out so she could follow the man's progress down the hall.

"No desire to attack him?" I asked, amused at her distraction.

"No." When the distant sound of the elevator opening and closing had faded away, she finally gave me her full attention.

"He's lying to you, Mick."

"Huh? Who? Partridge?"

"Yeah. His aura was dark gray. And there was some brown there, too."

"What does that mean?"

"Secretive. Deceptive. He was also distracted, which implies his desire to hide something."

"His pulse and breathing gave no indication that he was lying."

"He must be a good liar," Beth told me confidently. "People can control their reactions through biofeedback. Auras don't lie, as Richard says."

_Richard, my ass,_ I thought uncharitably. And we'd discussed his bill too before his second visit; Fontaine was certainly not doing this service for Beth out of the goodness of his heart.

"No offense, Beth, but you really haven't been at this for very long—"

"You're saying you don't believe me?"

I took her hands in mine, trying my best not to sound condescending. "It's not that, honey. You just lack…experience. Everything new takes time and practice to perfect—"

She let go of my hands and began pacing in the entryway. "You're telling me you didn't get some sort of negative vibe from him, because I got that too. The aura just confirmed it."

Well, I had gotten the feeling the guy was a little off, but that could just be his personality. I couldn't pin down anything particularly unsavory about him.

"Why would he lie to me?" I asked, switching tactics.

"I don't know. Maybe he wants to find his partner for some other, more nefarious reason." I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that she'd been eavesdropping on our conversation.

I considered her suggestion, but honestly could offer no opinion either way. "I guess that's possible," I conceded, "but unlikely."

"Let me help you with this, Mick. I could go along with you on stake-outs or whatever you plan to do to investigate. Come on, it will be like old times. And I really would like to get out of this place a little more. The walls are beginning to close in on me. What's more, I'll happily admit I'm wrong, if nothing bad happens."

She had been an experienced investigator for the DA's office before her accident, and an investigative reporter before that. She knew the ropes. I didn't see how her involvement would hurt, given that this seemed to be a cut and dried missing person case.

"Okay," I conceded. "But you stay close to me, and don't go wandering off on your own, understand? You did fine with one human; things could get dicey and overwhelming in the midst of a crowd of them."

She threw herself into my arms, covering my face with grateful kisses. I really hoped I wouldn't regret this.

A/N: If any of you see auras, or are experts on their interpretation, please pardon any mistakes I've made in my research. I did discover that the interpretation can vary by individual, but there clearly does seem to be evidence that some people actually can observe this phenomenon, and that you can actually be taught! Pretty cool, if you're into that kind of stuff. Anyway, I hope you like the direction I'm taking with this. Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your feedback!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: This chapter is sort of a transitional one, but I tried to pack it with some humor and romance, and a little adventure. Hope you like it.

Chapter 11

MICK

A quick internet search, and I'd found the address of Simon Partridge's business partner, Harrison Archer, here in LA. It was in a quiet, relatively wealthy neighborhood, and Beth rode shotgun with me in my old Mercedes. It really did seem like old times. The house was dark and we drove on past, parking down the street so we wouldn't garner as much suspicion. We walked back to the two-story mcmansion, casually holding hands like lovers on a moonlight stroll. We nodded politely at others doing the same, steering clear of those walking their dogs. They still growled at us, eliciting apologies from their surprised owners. Animals didn't like vampires much.

At Archer's house, we looked around, then snuck up the side of the yard, ducking behind a long hedge to conceal ourselves. At the front door, I noted the simple security system, grateful I knew the factory override code. I stood still, listening a moment, then punched in the numbers on the key pad.

"You hear that?" I whispered to Beth.

She turned her head slightly, trying to detect what I meant. "What? I don't hear anything."

"No one's home."

"Maybe they're sleeping," she suggested.

"No. No one's home. Listen. No heartbeats."

She grinned in the pale light. "Oh my gosh. You're right. I'd be able to hear that, wouldn't I?"

I smiled back gently. "Yep."

"Cool."

I took out my lock picks and quickly opened the door. I was glad she didn't need a light now either, as we walked through the living area, looking for clues. Everything seemed neat and tidy. Family pictures on the wall indicated that Archer had a lovely wife and young son. We explored the house until we found what looked to be a home office. A pc was on the desk, and I turned it on.

"Why couldn't Partridge have just done this himself?" Beth asked me.

"For one, he doesn't want to dirty his hands. For another—he has no idea I'm doing this."

She grinned her approval. I was glad to know several months working in the DA's office hadn't made her overly concerned about warrants and laws and such.

"Close that blind, would you please?" I asked Beth. She did so, then stood behind me as the computer booted up. Her hands on my shoulders were a little distracting. This heightened sexual attraction was amazing, but not conducive to good detective work when all it took was one touch for me to want to take her there on Harrison Archer's floor.

I gritted my teeth and clicked on the web browser icon. It brought me to his e-mail page. Nice of him to have saved his password so I didn't have to try to guess it. So far, this little expedition had been wonderfully hassle free.

"Bingo!" I said, bringing up an e-mail with the subject line: _Your Itinerary._ It was from an online reservation service.

"Looks like he's going to Chicago," said Beth when I opened the e-mail.

"Uh-huh. He left last night. And there's his hotel reservation too. I guess he hasn't been kidnapped after all. Damn. I hope I can get a flight out tonight."

"You mean _we_, don't you?"

"Beth—"

"You said I could be in on this."

"Not on a plane full of humans going to a hotel full of humans, in a city full of even more humans."

"LA is full of humans," she pointed out.

"But I can keep you more or less isolated, what with my own private home and transportation. Chicago would seem like a smorgasbord to a newly turned vamp."

She was quiet a moment, and I could practically hear the wheels turning in that keen mind of hers. Then: "I know. We could use Josef's plane and I bet he has a house or apartment in Chicago. We could rent a car and not use public transportation. And I'd make sure I drank plenty of blood."

Her idea was persuasive; but then, add to that how she began nuzzling and kissing my neck and I would have agreed to anything. I turned in the chair and pulled her wandering mouth to mine, indulging myself for a brief moment before releasing her and trying to refocus. She grinned.

"Is that a yes?"

I snorted as I scrolled down to note the details of the itinerary. "Okay. You can go, provided Josef's stuff is available. Now, keep your hands to yourself for five minutes, woman, so I can—uh-oh."

That e-mail was a little longer than I'd first thought. It included the ticket information for Archer's wife and child. "Crap. That complicates matters."

Beth looked over my shoulder to see what I meant. "Why? You think this is just a family holiday? It's the middle of the school term; why would they suddenly go on vacation?"

"Well," I said, "if what Partridge says is true, Archer took all their money. We've got to find out the real story, and I don't want the guy's family becoming collateral damage in whatever this is."

"Maybe you should get more information from Partridge first."

I turned on the nearby printer and printed out a copy of the itinerary. "That may not be such a good idea. I've been thinking about your suspicions about his honesty. If I tell him where these people are, what's to stop him from going after them and taking his partner out? Something's not right here, and now I'm very curious to find out what that is."

"What if Archer did steal from him though?" Beth asked. "Doesn't Partridge have the right to get his money back?"

"Yeah, but I don't like the idea of him taking matters into his own hands."

"You could quit. Tell him you don't want the case now."

I scrolled through the rest of Archer's new and recently deleted e-mail. Nothing relevant popped up.

"He'd just hire someone else to do the same thing," I told her. "At least _we _have some scruples here." I got to my feet, then began rifling through the drawers of his desk. Yeah, I know; my scruples were a little shaky too, breaking and entering and going through the man's personal things. Beth helped by looking in a small filing cabinet. She pulled out a folder full of bank statements.

"Phew. This guy doesn't need money. He has close to a million dollars just in his checking account. And his savings is up into the millions."

"Maybe he has debt we don't know about, that he needs the company money to pay," I suggested. "And there's always the old stand-by: greed."

Beth took my place in the desk chair, and typed in the internet address of Archer's bank. She used the account number to log in and check his current balance. The guy really should get some better security; all his passwords were saved for easier access. Maybe after this case was over, I could suggest my online security services. I smiled to myself at the thought.

"Look at this," she said triumphantly. "Two days ago, Archer's account jumped by ten million. How much did Partridge say he stole?"

I grinned. "Ten million."

With enough new information to go on, I shut down the computer and we headed out of the house. I re-engaged the home security system and stood in the shadows of the porch, looking and listening to make sure we weren't seen.

"Okay, let's go," I whispered, taking her hand and going back the way we came behind the hedge. On the sidewalk again, we both heaved a mental sigh of relief.

"That was fun," Beth said happily.

I had to admit that it was. "We're still a great team, you and I."

"A giant thrill ride that never ends, you said once."

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and, heedless of our surroundings, pulled her into my arms. "That's an understatement," I said, before bending my head to kiss her.

A nearby growl made us jump apart, as did the energetic pounding of two canine hearts. Dogs generally have one of two reactions to vampires: run or attack. I guess these two were in attack mode, for the two German shepherds were coming at us at a dead run, growling and barking, their leashes dragging the ground. Behind them, we could hear the sound of their master yelling for them to come back.

"Max! Shep! Heel!"

They were paying him no mind. Had no one been around, I would have waited to fight them off. Not enough to hurt them much, but to let them know who the alpha male was around here. I'd also probably vamp out to add some healthy fear to the mix. But, it being a busy neighborhood, I realized our options were a bit limited.

"What do we do?" Beth asked frantically.

"Run!"

We headed for my car, and I was thinking how glad I was that the top wasn't down tonight. Dogs can run fast, but vamps can run faster. Unfortunately, we had a few obstacles in our way, like cars, people, trees. We made it to the car and opened our doors, the two beasts close on our heels. Beth stumbled a little at the last minute, and one of the animals clamped down on her ankle. I smelled her blood and rage as the pain made her automatically vamp out. I slid inside the car and slammed the door on my own pursuer, while Beth growled and hissed at the dog who held fast to her leg. Instantly, as if he'd been hit, the dog sensed Beth's supernatural gaze and looking up at her silver eyes and elongated canines, abruptly let go, backing away and crying in fear. The other dog joined its brother and, upon seeing Beth's otherworldly face, hearing her angry roar, it too whimpered and ran off with the other. Beth shut her door, and I drove away, needing to get as far away from the scene as possible before someone made my license plate number. So much for a hassle-free mission. My earlier thought had apparently jinxed us.

"You okay?" I asked anxiously, heading the car back toward my place.

"Yeah," she said, her human habit of breathing heavily still a part of her reaction. Of course, there was no breath to warrant it. "Damn, that stings." She tore off the lower part of her t-shirt and wrapped it around the wound, and I caught a tantalizing glimpse of toned stomach.

"It'll heal fairly quickly," I told her. "And no need to worry about rabies."

She chuckled. "Well, that's a comfort. You were serious when you told me animals and humans were not a good mix."

"Yeah. Unlike humans, they can sense that we are different, that we aren't like humans. Understandably, it scares them." I smiled then, realizing this was the first time I'd seen Beth fully vamped out in response to danger. It took a lot of control when you were in pain not to go a little crazy and kill everything in your path, especially if you were a newbie. I cast her a proud, sidelong glance. "You were great back there, by the way."

She turned toward me, her leg up on the bench seat, still holding the cloth to the bite. She grinned. "Thank you. That was amazing. It hurt like hell, but instinctively I knew I could scare them. And as much as I felt like killing them, I didn't want to. I imagine they were just protecting their master." She looked a little sheepish as she willfully turned back to her human face. "You think anyone saw me?"

"I don't know, but a flash of fang in the moonlight might be easily explained by tricks of the darkness. I'll get you home and cleaned up, then call Josef to see if we can use his plane. You had enough adventure for one night?"

"Surprisingly, no. But then, the night has just begun for vampires, hasn't it?"

I glanced up at the moon, just rising in the night sky, and looked on Beth with more love than I thought possible. "Yes, sweetheart, that it has."

JOSEF

"You need what? To go where?"

I juggled the phone between hands as Simone tied my tie for me. We were going out on the town for the first time in an entire week, and I was grateful to be getting out of this house. A vampire needs to feel the night, and that's hard to do when you're babysitting your best friend's newbie. Now, here was Mick, calling for yet another favor. Oh well. It was always great to have him owe me one. Or, in this case, two.

"Your plane, Josef. To Chicago. Tonight. I'm working on a case and unless you want Beth to stay with you, this is the only safe way to take her anywhere right now."

"Sure, no problem. Running the tab here, as usual. I'll call my pilot, and we'll be waiting for you at the airport in about an hour."

"We?"

"Yeah. I was planning on taking Simone out to a play tonight, but I have the sudden urge to stroll down Michigan Avenue, and make love to my wife on the top of the Hancock Building. That sounds much more appealing than another boring rendition of _Les Miserables."_

Suddenly, my tie was pulled much tighter than necessary, and I looked into Simone's annoyed brown eyes. I gave her my most charming grin, despite the intense feeling of strangulation.

"Tell Beth I'll see her soon," Simone sighed into the phone. "Josef, on the other hand, might be a little too incapacitated to make it."

"Will do," replied Mick, chuckling at the threat in her tone. We hung up, and I pocketed my phone.

Simone released my tie and frowned at me. "I've been looking forward to this all week, Josef."

I took her hands and pulled her back to me, admiring the deep copper color of her halter-style dress, the careful upsweep of her dark blonde hair.

"Your lovely gown won't be wasted, my love. I'll take you dancing, and I'll make good on that promise about where we make love tonight."

She considered me a moment, and I watched the light of lust begin to glow in her eyes. "Alright…but I get to be on top."

I kissed her lightly, my hands running up and down her sexy bare back. "It will be my pleasure," I grinned, and hungrily devoured her luscious lips.

A/N: If you liked this, please post a review! I'd love to hear from you, and I try to answer every logged in post. Thanks so much for reading.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: It took me awhile to find my way in this. Had some serious writer's block, but I pushed on through it. Hope you are happy with the result.

Chapter 12

MICK

Josef's private jet was the height of vampire comfort, with plenty of freezer berths to go around, blood on tap from the freshie flight attendants, and his best scotch on the wet bar. And so it was that I kept Beth close when the human women greeted us at the door. I felt her interest pique, noted her flared nostrils and the faint silver cast to her eyes. I guess I should have foreseen this possibility of disaster, but on the other hand, she had to get used to being around humans sometime. This was a controlled environment, with three other vamps to help her maintain control, and humans who were well aware of what we are. I hoped Josef and Simone would refrain from partaking of the freshies' services while Beth was aboard. That would certainly make my job as sire a bit easier.

Josef and Simone had already arrived and were lounging in the leather seats, both dressed in evening wear.

"Sorry to interrupt your evening plans," I said, looking at Simone as she and Beth hugged.

"He's promised to make it up to me," she said, shooting her husband a warning glance.

"And I always pay my debts—in full—plus interest, I might add. Lots and lots of interest," Josef smirked suggestively at his wife. "Hello, Beth. How's my favorite newbie today?"

"Fine, thanks. And we do appreciate you loaning us the jet on such short notice." He looked from Beth to me, and back again, one eyebrow raised suspiciously.

"_We_? Are you two a crime solving team now? I thought you just needed my vampsitting services."

"Beth's helping me on this one," I replied evenly. "I mean, we used to do this all the time, remember?"

"Yeah, but it was usually against your better judgment," Josef said.

"Oh, really?" Beth shot me a look of annoyance. "You didn't used to like me to work with you?"

I sighed. Josef always knew the best way to stir up trouble. "I told you on many occasions that I thought the cases I was involved with were too dangerous for you. For a human, that is. Now, I'm happy to say I don't have to worry about you so much."

We all sat down and buckled up, as the flight attendants began preparing for departure. The pilot interrupted briefly to announce our clearance for takeoff. I leaned over and kissed Beth's temple, trying to smooth things over.

"Besides," I continued, "Beth handled herself very well awhile ago. We managed to get away from a couple of German shepherds, relatively unscathed."

Beth held up her leg and pulled up her slacks so they could see the nearly healed bitemarks on her ankle.

"Awww…baby's first dog attack," Josef grinned. "You must be so proud, Mick."

I nodded and smiled. The plane began taxiing down the runway, picking up speed until it gently became airborne.

"Damn, Beth. That looks like it must have hurt." Simone said sympathetically. "I haven't been around animals since I've been turned. I take it dogs don't care for vamps much."

"Well, these dogs certainly didn't," Beth replied. "But I showed them who was boss and they ran away with their tails between their legs."

Josef laughed. "That doesn't bode well for you, Mick. She's sounding scarier all the time."

To Josef's immense amusement, Beth flashed a hint of fang to emphasize his words.

"Hey," I hesitated, taken aback, "I think Beth could use some blood to take the edge off, don't you?" Seeing her that way outside the bedroom was still a little startling.

Josef snapped his fingers and one of the ladies reappeared with a tray of blood cocktails.

"So," Josef began conversationally. "Tell me about this case you're taking my jet all the way to Chicago for."

"That's client privilege," I said.

Josef shrugged. "You're no lawyer—thank God." He ignored the elbow in his ribs from Simone. "And since you're not wearing your priest's robes…spill it."

I briefly explained the situation and Josef's face went abruptly from amusement to concern when he heard the name of my client.

"Simon Partridge, eh? I've heard of this guy."

"What about him?" I asked.

Josef leaned forward in his seat. "He comes from big money. I've met his father, Arthur Partridge. Good guy. The man was self-made, like me. Invented some computer program that made him rich. But he didn't want his son to ride on his success, so he made young Partridge go to college and make something of himself. He's the _P _in P&A Securities, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "So, what's so bad about this? His father sounds like a savvy guy."

"From what I hear, Simon was very spoiled and used to the good life before daddy kicked him out of the Partridge nest. He started his own business, alright, but went to the wrong people for financing. I bet his _investors_ have come to collect their profits. My guess? His partner, Archer, found out about it, took the money, and split."

I considered this angle a moment. "Any idea who those so-called investors are?"

"Oh yeah. Vampire mafia. That's why I know so much about this."

Beth's mouth fell open. "Vampires have their own mafia?" She looked at Josef suspiciously. "Are you in it?"

He laughed. "Beth, Beth, Beth. I myself am self-made. I have no need for a bunch of goons to prop me up. My business is mostly on the up and up, I promise you. I have no desire to have the law snooping around. As for the mafia...they know I don't like the way they do business, so they stay well clear of me."

"Even the mafia is afraid of you." I said with a grin.

"And well they should be," he said, a dangerous edge in his tone. "The Council looks the other way, though, unless they do something stupid that risks exposing the entire community."

"No wonder Partridge didn't want to go to the police," Beth surmised. "Does he know they're vampires?"

Josef shrugged. "Doubtful. The fangs only come out when they're being particularly threatening, from what I've heard. Did Partridge seem afraid when you met him?"

"No," I replied. "He just wanted to find his missing partner and the money he took. Now what he wants to do with him when we find Archer—that's another story."

"I was right about his aura," Beth said triumphantly. "He _was_ being secretive, Mick."

"That is so cool, Beth," Simone said. "You could really tell he wasn't being truthful, I mean beyond vampire perception?"

"Yeah. Dr. Fontaine is amazing. He's taught me so much."

Josef and I both looked heavenward; neither of us enjoying hearing the girls rhapsodize over the Australian pretty boy.

The rest of the three and a half hour flight, we talked of lighter things, and what we liked about Chicago. Too bad it wasn't a pleasure trip, at least not for Beth and me. So, while Josef and Simone went dancing and had sex on top of various tall buildings, Beth and I would be tracking down Harrison Archer at his hotel on Michigan Avenue.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Josef's limo dropped us off, and we would either meet up later at the airport, or get a room for the night, depending on how things went.

It was eleven o'clock local time, and with the time zone change, we'd helpfully gained two hours for the night. Of course, the clerk at the swanky hotel would not give us Archer's room number, and even stated that there was no one registered under that name. Obviously he and his family were laying low, but I had the printout with Archer's confirmation number so, using the hotel lobby's guest computer, I was able to hack into Archer's online travel agency account and find out what name he was using. I called the desk from the lobby phone and was put through to Archer's room. No answer.

"Dammit," I said in frustration.

"Hey," Beth said. "There's only one person at the front desk right now. I could distract him while you try to get a look on their computer at Archer's room number."

I grinned at her affectionately. "I've always loved the way you think. But are you feeling in control? Had enough blood on the plane?" There were humans coming and going in the hotel lobby, and I was trying to divide my time between my investigation and watching out for Beth.

"They smell delicious, I'm not gonna lie; but I think I'll be okay."

I looked at her carefully, and she did seem fine. Not a hint of silver in her eyes. "Okay. But you get so much as a twinge, you abort the mission and come and find me, you got it?"

"Yes sir!" She smiled at my _daddy_ voice.

I bent and lightly kissed her smart mouth. "Oh, I'll make you pay for that one. What's your plan?"

A few minutes later, and I used Archer's assumed name to look up his room number: 1205, registered to him, his wife, and child. I narrowly avoided having to wait on a customer by making myself scarce and heading for my rendezvous with Beth at the side elevators.

She arrived a minute later, her smile wide and accomplished. "I did it. No problem. Not even a twinge."

"That's my good girl," I said, purposefully condescending. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. We made one another _pay _in the elevator all the way up to the twelfth floor, so much so that we were both left extremely frustrated by the time the doors dinged, then opened. Our bodies still humming, we stepped out into the hall. We both stopped abruptly in our tracks: vampires had been here.

"You smell that?" I asked Beth.

She inhaled softly. "Yeah. Vampires, right? And…blood."

"Yeah. Something tells me this is not a coincidence." We stood outside room 1205, and the scent had only grown stronger. I listened, and could hear no heartbeats, but the smell of human blood was very strong. I looked at Beth. She'd never had to fight vampires before. If they had a machete, or a stake, I wasn't sure if she could handle herself. As if reading my thoughts—or maybe my aura was showing my fear for her—she said, "Don't worry about me. I've got all this newbie super power, remember?"

"Stay behind me anyway, Superwoman." She smirked, but did as she was told.

I looked down the hall both ways, and, seeing no one, promptly kicked the door in. No one was there, but a pool of human blood dampened the bed's cream colored comforter. The window was wide open. I went to it, pulling apart the heavy curtains that blew gently in the nighttime breeze. There was only a small security ledge, no balcony. It was more or less a straight jump down, or up. Droplets of blood decorated the windowsill.

"How many different people and vamps do you smell?" I asked, using the crime scene as a training opportunity.

She sniffed again, then wrinkled her nose in concentration. "I smell at least two vamps. Only one human, though. This fresh blood nearly blots out every other scent for me." I could see that her exposure to the blood was wreaking havoc on her earlier control. I needed to get her out of there soon.

"Good. I smell three vamps and three humans." I leaned out the window again. "I can't tell whether they went up or down with the breeze obfuscating things. The vamps have obviously abducted the Archers. From the smell of it, I'd say maybe one or two hours ago. Let's go downstairs below this window and see if we can pick up their scent again, then if that fails, up to the roof."

"You think they're dead?" Beth asked, no doubt remembering the picture of their little boy.

I put my hand on her arm as she stood beside me at the window. "I'm not sure. One of them has lost a lot of blood. I can't help thinking that this is a message for Partridge, or maybe an attempt to extort the money he owes through kidnapping. I'll call Josef and find out who he knows in the Chicago vampire mafia." I snorted. "Did I really just say that?"

"Yeah," said Beth, for once not sharing in the humor. "Just goes to show that both worlds have their fair share of evil in them."

I looked at her, pulling her into my arms. "It's just one world, Beth. And we're going to do what we can to make it better. Starting with finding the Archers."

"Oh God, Mick. Get me out of here, please." The blood on the bed had finally become too much for her.

"We're going, baby. For one thing, I don't want to be in the middle of a police investigation."

Downstairs, I picked up the scent again, but it disappeared at the curb. The vamps likely had a vehicle waiting for them. I took out my phone and speed-dialed Josef. I hoped he wasn't going to be too pissed off that I was interrupting his night on the town…again. That's three I'd owe him.

A/N: So, this moves things right along. More intrigue on the way. Please review—I'll love you forever ;)


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: It's hard to balance humor and tragedy, so I sure hope this chapter succeeds. The first part is mildly on the "M" side, just so you know. Enjoy!

Chapter 13

JOSEF

Simone's hand was in my pants and mine were on her breasts when my cell phone rang.

"Don't answer it," said my wife against my mouth. We were on the observation deck of the Hancock building, my overcoat wrapped around us, concealing our naughty behavior as we stood in a dark corner. The lights of Chicago spread below us, the boats on Lake Michigan twinkled like stars on black velvet, the city's famous wind felt bracing and refreshing so high up. Very romantic, I know. Of course, in the face of all this lovely ambiance, I'd made some immature remark about the name of the building, and next thing I knew, her _hand_ was on my _co—_

"I have to. It's Mick." His particular ringtone, _King of Pain, _by The Police, rang and vibrated softly in my pants pocket. While the sensation only added to Simone's erotic ministrations, I knew I'd better answer it. God knows I couldn't trust Mick without me in a strange city.

"This had better be good," I growled into the phone, and, with a wicked grin, Simone continued to work her hand while I tried to focus on what my friend was saying.

"The Archers have been taken," said Mick, his voice fairly dripping with concern for the hapless humans.

"Smell anything—uhhh—familiar?" Simone's grip tightened, and I locked my knees before they buckled.

"No, but it was definitely three vamps that did it, plus the driver of their getaway car."

"Okay…let me make some calls and—_hisss—_I'll uh, set up a meeting with the local don. Maybe we could…come…uh…come…to some agreement."

"Great. Thanks Josef."

"_Oh, God_…uh, you're uh, welcome."

"Josef, are you and Simone-?" I could hear the laughter in his voice as he'd rightly figured out that my attention was definitely divided.

"Give me ten minutes, Mick. Awww…better make that fifteen…" And I hung up and dropped the phone absently back in my pocket. Now that I had both hands free, I used them to pull up her dress. I moaned thankfully that my brilliant wife had had the foresight not to wear panties. I lifted one of her shapely legs to wrap around my waist beneath my long coat.

"You little minx," I whispered into her ear, just as I entered her, pushing her back against the railing. If anyone else had been up there at that moment, they would have seen something they could share with their grandchildren.

MICK

I laughed as the connection with Josef was broken. I glanced at Beth, who, of course, had heard both sides of the conversation with her keen new hearing. She was smiling knowingly, and it brought a little comic relief to our tense situation.

"Glad to hear they still are making each other…happy," she said.

I looked at her with love. I wished more than anything we had time to do what my friends were doing right now. Joining hands, we went back into the hotel to wait in the first floor bar. I ordered a whiskey, and Beth a glass of wine. My phone rang again just as we got our drinks—an unfamiliar number.

"St. John!" came the frantic voice of Simon Partridge. "Where the hell are you?"

"Calm down, Mr. Partridge; I'm working on trying to track down your partner right now." I didn't tell him I was in Chicago, and that his partner may actually be dead at that moment. I still wasn't exactly sure of the extent of his involvement, not to mention his true motivations.

"Well, I just got a picture sent to my cell phone. It's Harrison. They cut off part of his ear! He's been beaten, and he's got what look like bite marks all over his neck. His wife and son are in the picture, looking scared to death. Oh my God! I never wanted them to be involved in this shit!"

Well, the missing ear explained the blood on the bed.

"What do they want?"I said through gritted teeth.

"They want ten million dollars. That's how much Harry took from me."

"That's quite a coincidence," I said caustically. "Did you tell them he had it?"

"No. I-I wasn't thinking straight, I guess. Now, what do I do?"

I sighed. Maybe if Archer could have given them the money, they'd at least let his wife and child go. Now, I'd say Archer was a goner, even if the kidnappers did get paid. I didn't even suggest the police, given the vampire involvement.

"Did they give you a time frame, or tell you when they'd call again?"

"They've given me three hours to get them the money, or they're gonna kill them all. They'll call then to tell me a way to give them the money."

Beth and I exchanged worried glances. "Send the picture to my cell phone. Maybe I can see some clues as to where they are. You have any idea who these people are?"

He hesitated, so of course he knew damn well who we were dealing with. What a prick.

"No. They must know we have money. Someone trying to make a buck. You must see this stuff happen all the time, huh?"

"Yeah," I said dully. "All the time."

Actually, I didn't normally have asshole clients who got financed by the vampire mafia and got their partners kidnapped. This was a first for me. But I didn't want to tip my hand that I knew more than I did, because after this was over, I fully planned to nail Simon Partridge to the wall, and it would make it a hell of a lot easier if I didn't have to find him first.

"I'll send you that picture. And please, use those skills I'm paying you top dollar for to find my friend."

The line clicked off. "Bastard," I muttered.

A few seconds later, Partridge's picture came through. Beth gasped when she saw it. Archer looked like he'd gone through a meat grinder and yeah, those were definitely vampire bites. His family had terrified, haunted expressions as they clutched Archer's arms. I couldn't make out anything around them, except noting that they were in a dark room. Archer was sitting in a nondescript, ladder back chair, his wife and son standing beside him.

We sipped our drinks in silence, and then, the call came from Josef.

"Well, that was fast," I couldn't help saying wryly.

"That's why they're called quickies, my friend. Besides, there are still two more buildings we'd like to visit tonight; I'm pacing myself. And I certainly didn't hear any complaints. On the contrary-"

"You find out anything?" I interrupted, glancing sheepishly at Beth. She smirked at my old-fashioned embarrassment.

"Yeah. We'll be paying a courtesy visit to an old acquaintance of mine, Lorenzo Aiello. You still at the hotel?"

"Yes."

"We'll swing by in a few and pick you up in the limo. Aiello lives over on Astor."

"See you in a bit," I told him. Josef was a Godsend, although I'd be the last one to tell him that.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A half hour later, we pulled in front of a natural stone mansion, on a street similar to ones you might find in Manhattan. It practically screamed _old money._

We were welcomed inside by an older Italian woman who spoke in accented English. From the smell of decay, I'd say she was at least a hundred years old.

"Senor Kostan! It has been too long! Please, come in. Senor Aiello is expecting you. And look at your lovely friends."

After grabbing Josef by both cheeks, Josef introduced us to Isabella Bianchi.

"I cannot believe you finally married!" she said enthusiastically. "Simone is so lovely, you were just waiting for the right girl, eh? And you, Senor St. John—I've heard so much about you over the years. Handsome, so handsome. Beth must be your lovely fiancé."

I smiled—you couldn't help but smile around this motherly woman. I had an unexpected pang as I thought of my own mother, so long gone now. She led us to a darkly lit parlor, where a familiar heavyset man sat in a leather wing-back chair, flanked by two tall men dressed in suits, their demeanors firmly on the scary side. I felt like I had walked onto the set of a vampire _Godfather _movie. The big man, Lorenzo Aiello, rose from his seat to hug Josef and kiss him fondly on both sides of his neck, yet there was at the same time a professional distance, a show of mutual respect and even caution between them. When the introductions were finished, Aiello motioned us to have seats on the couches and chairs surrounding him. He was a man used to an audience.

"Josef, my friend," he began, his voice gravelly and tough. "I'm honored by your visit. But how may I be of assistance to you?"

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Lorenzo. My companions and I are concerned about a friend of ours, who recently disappeared in Chicago, and we were hoping, given that you know everything that goes on in the city, that you'd be able to help us out."

"I'll do what I can, of course. What's his name?"

"Harrison Archer, recently arrived from Los Angeles. It's very distressing, because his hotel room was left in a mess, and his wife and child are also missing."

"Humans?" he asked, giving away no indication that he knew the name.

"Yes."

"And why would anyone abduct a nice human family like that?" asked the don.

"His business partner owes members of your LA family some money, and we have reason to believe they have followed him here."

"Awww," said Aiello noncommittally. "How can you be sure my family has anything to do with this?"

"We received a picture of the Archers, and, at the risk of being indelicate, Mr. Archer is going to need some major plastic surgery on his right ear."

Everyone had remained quiet, allowing the two powerful men their conversation. As I studied Aiello, I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew him somehow. At Josef's description of the picture, the tension in the room increased tenfold. This was obviously a familiar mafia calling card.

"If you are mistaken, Josef, I would take this as quite a personal insult." The threat in the old vamp's voice was understated, but there nonetheless. Josef didn't appear frightened in the least.

"I'm not mistaken," he said mildly. "And I would take it as a personal insult if something were to happen to this nice human family under your watch."

Aiello nodded in understanding. "I guess we are at an impasse. I'll tell you what, Josef. I'll look into this matter, and if something can be done, I'll see to it, as a personal favor to you, to honor our years of mutual friendship and respect."

"I would appreciate that."

Josef rose; our signal to leave. We shook hands with Aiello, and the big vamp turned to me.

"I'm sorry this unpleasant business didn't allow us to get to know each other better. As a friend of Josef's you are always welcome here. When you are next in Chicago, please come by. I would like to see you and your lovely fiancé under happier circumstances." He exchanged polite smiles with Beth.

"Thank you," I said sincerely, realizing that this man was a powerful friend to have. "I will do that. It was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you for allowing us to come into your home."

"The pleasure was mine. And Josef—don't be a stranger. You don't hang out here nearly as much as you did in the 1920's."

"This city isn't as lively as it was back in those days, Al—pardon me—_Lorenzo_." There was a humorous grin mirrored on each face, as if from the remembrance of a private joke.

"We have to find our excitement where we can get it now, eh?" Aiello pronounced, his grin widening.

We said our goodbyes, and Isabella saw us out, obviously disappointed that we hadn't stayed longer.

"Now what," I asked, as the limo pulled away.

"We wait. We have about two hours until the deadline, right? If Lorenzo's crime family has its fangs in this, he'll take care of it, I'm sure. He doesn't want to be on my bad side."

I realized now that Josef had been the one with all the power in that room. He was a much older vamp, in my estimation. Out of curiosity, I asked: "How old is Aiello?"

"Well," Josef said, eyes unaccountably sparkling. "He was turned in the 1940's, then continued his former life of crime back in Chicago, his old stomping grounds. Or, should I say, killing fields."

Then, it suddenly hit me, and I remembered where I'd seen the vampire don's face before. It had been all over the papers and in the newsreels when I was a kid, and I'd seen enough gangster movies to recognize him.

"Josef, that's not-?" I said in disbelief.

At Josef's amused nod, my jaw dropped in shock. "But he died." I exclaimed. "I saw the pictures."

"Well, Mick, you know how these things go. Death is never really the end, now is it?"

"Who is he?" Beth asked curiously.

"I don't remember ever seeing him before," said Simone, looking at Josef and me in confusion.

"It's probably best you ladies don't know his true identity; it might be safer that way." Josef was being quite serious, not condescending in the least.

"It's funny," Beth said, "Aiello has practically the same aura as you, Josef. Also, he seems to be telling the truth, though there was a hint of secrecy in his coloring."

Josef only grinned.

"Wow," I said, still trying to wrap my mind around all the people Josef Kostan knew. If I lived to be a thousand, I had the feeling he'd still be able to surprise me.

A/N: I had fun with this chapter; hope you did as well. And by the way, if you can think of a better, funnier ringtone for Mick, please suggest it. I got the idea in my head, then had the hardest time coming up with one suitably funny and apt, so if I get a better suggestion, I'll go back and change it, lol. Thanks for reading, and I hope you do me the honor of posting a review.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Congratulations to those who picked up that Al Capone was the secret identity of Lorenzo Aiello. I always have fun name dropping in my fics, just to make Josef sound even cooler. Hope you like this chapter; there's a little more action here, and some good old-fashioned fang baring (That's for you BFangz, lol). And thank you reviewers for pushing my review count over the 200 mark! This is the most reviewed of any of my "Moonlight" fics. That is so cool! Your reviews are what inspire me to write, and I really appreciate all the time you take to write them.

CHAPTER 14

BETH

We were almost back to the hotel when Mick's cell phone rang. It was Partridge. One of the cool things about being a vampire was being able to clearly hear both sides of a telephone conversation. There'd be no more hiding things to protect the human, I thought in satisfaction.

"Harry and his family are being held in Chicago," Mick's client was saying.

"I know. That's where I am."

"What? How?"

"I've been tracking them."

"And you weren't going to tell me?"

Mick sighed. "I wasn't sure until I got here. But that's not important right now. What did the kidnappers say?"

"Nothing about the money anymore. They said to send someone to pick up the Archers in a side street off Michigan. An empty storefront…they're letting them go," Partridge finished in disbelief. In the limo seat across from me, I saw Josef nod in satisfaction.

"Where, exactly?" Mick asked. Partridge gave him an address. "I'm nearby," Mick told him. "I'll go pick them up. Stay by the phone."

When they hung up, Josef gave the address to the driver. Had I been human, the dark street would have been terrifying to me at night. With my new night vision, it nearly seemed light as day, and I noticed a few shady characters in the shadows of a darkened store awning, the burning ends of their cigarettes the only indication that someone was there, at least to any passing humans. When the limo pulled to a stop, I realized they were making a drug deal. I looked over at Mick; he had to have heard and seen them. He must have witnessed many such illegal activities going on over the years, but had done nothing about it unless someone was in immediate danger. I guess part of being a vampire was minding your own business so that others would stay out of yours. That would take some getting used to. I reached over to open the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Josef asked.

"Oh no," I protested. "My days of waiting in the car are over. You both can stop being sexist and overly protective now. I'm a vampire, just like you."

Mick snorted a little beside me, but said nothing. Obviously, there would be no help from that quarter.

"You changed into a vampire; you didn't change your sex, Beth," said Josef with annoying condescension.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Simone said, sharing in my offense. _There _was my backup.

"Come on, let's not turn this into a NOW meeting. These are dangerous vamps we're dealing with here. You two _ladies_ are inexperienced in fang-to-fang combat."

"Are you gonna let him talk to us like that, Mick?" I asked, rounding on my appallingly silent fiancé.

He laughed, his hands going up in protest. "Uh-uh. I'm staying out of this one. This is entirely your can of worms, sweetheart."

Josef grinned, but winced at Simone's sudden punch to his bicep. "Hey!"

"Chauvinist," she muttered.

I decided to change tactics, go with reason. "What about vampire solidarity?" I said. "You guys might need back-up in there."

Josef looked down at his professionally buffed fingernails. "Mick and I can handle it. We've done this kind of thing before a few times. Fighting with vamps like these is not something you should learn on the job."

"We'll stay out of the way, and only get in on things if you need us."

Mick shook his head, smiling. He'd seen me in action on many occasions. I was a master at getting my way.

"Besides," inserted Simone, her voice gone seductively low. "Sitting here arguing about it means less time for uh…building hopping." Josef's eyes flew to hers, and a steamy moment passed between them. I certainly couldn't compete with _that_ reasoning. Mick and I rolled our eyes.

Josef reached up and touched his wife's cheek. "You don't play fair," he chided. "God, I love you."

"Well, now that that's settled," Mick said. "The Archer's are waiting in there for us to rescue them. Don't you think we should get in there? Soon?"

Josef tore himself from Simone's lips and grinned. "By all means, Mick. Let's go save some humans."

The driver opened the door of the vehicle and we got out, walking up to the empty store. The sign painted overhead had said it had once been a tailor's shop. Even from outside, I could smell the strong odors of blood and vampires. I still wasn't experienced enough to tell how many, but I was sickened when I realized that I could only hear the gentle pounding of _two_ heartbeats. Mick saw my pained expression and shook his head sorrowfully. He reached out and tried the door; it was unlocked. He looked meaningfully at Simone and me, indicating that we stay behind the two men, who preceded us inside.

It was dark in the front of the abandoned store, but a light glimmered beneath a door down the hall. We walked past creepy old dress forms, sewing machine tables, steam irons and work benches. I could still smell the faint scent of sewing machine oil and cotton fabric above the clashing scents of human suffering and vampire rage.

The door to the back room opened, and a smarmy vamp in an expensive suit stood in the doorway.

"They're back here," he growled. We followed him into the room. There, on the floor, was the source of the human blood and the explanation for the missing heartbeat. Harrison Archer lay on the floor in death, his throat ripped out. The four mafia members had apparently feasted on the hapless businessman, and now three of them sat at a wooden table, playing cards, a battery powered lantern between them. I shuttered in horror, at the same time disgusted with myself when my mouth watered at the smell of fresh blood. Mick pulled me closer to his back.

"What the hell is this?" asked Josef tightly. "You didn't get the call from your boss?"

"Call came too late," said the first guy casually. He pulled out a limp white handkerchief and daintily wiped the corners of his mouth.

I peaked around Mick to study the mafia vamp as he spoke. "He's lying," I said, noting the colors of his aura.

"Yes, he is," Mick said. "I can tell by the smell he's only been dead about a half hour. Who do you think you're dealing with?" His voice was ominous, and I could feel the tension in his back.

The vamp shrugged. "We ain't gettin' our money. We deserved to get something out of this deal. "

"Where are his wife and child? Are they okay?" I asked, trying to sound tough. I avoided looking at Josef's slight smirk.

The vamp nodded toward another door. "They're in the bathroom. They're safe enough. For now."

Josef and Mick glanced at each other, their heads inclining slightly—some unspoken signal.

"Too bad we can't say the same thing for you guys," roared Mick suddenly, and he and Josef vamped out, moving in to attack. Fight

Everything happened so fast, that, were I still human, I'd have had difficulty following their movements. Simone and I hung back and watched helplessly the clash of arms, legs, and fangs, as the men fought violently in the small room. Two of the mafia vamps were thrown against walls, kicked, bitten, and then ultimately crumbled to the floor, their neck bones cleanly snapped. In the process, a third vamp managed to jump on Mick attempting, to twist his neck from behind, while Mick had his hands around their colleague's neck. I watched in fear as Mick struggled to dislodge his attacker without letting loose of his own prey. I looked over and saw that Josef was occupied with the fourth, so, acting quickly, I grabbed one of the wooden chairs and tore off a leg. I ran over and stabbed the jagged edge into the vamp's back as hard as I could, praying that it had plunged through to his heart. When he slumped and let loose of Mick's neck, I knew I'd hit the mark.

Mick threw the guy off his back where he fell, paralyzed on the dirty tile floor. I watched as he bent over and effortlessly broke his neck for good measure.

"Thanks," he grinned at me, just as Josef threw the final mobster head first through the small window. The razor sharp glass cleanly cut his jugular, nearly taking off his head in the process. Not even a vamp could recover from that injury. He hung a dead weight at the window.

Josef brushed his hands together and straightened his tie. "Damn! That was surprisingly invigorating." He looked around. "Where's Simone?"

"In here," she called softly, her voice coming from the bathroom. Mick laid his coat respectfully over Archer's body, and we all gathered round the now open bathroom door. Mrs. Archer and her son sat on the floor of the horribly dirty bathroom, their hands and mouths duct taped. Tears fell from both their eyes, and they were obviously terrified. Simone was trying to gently remove the tape from their mouths, and she apologized as it tore at their delicate skin. Mick reached down, pulling the tape on their hands in two and helped them to their feet. When they could speak, Mrs. Archer looked up at us warily.

"Who are you?" She was trying to be strong for her son, who, hands now freed, clung to his mother's side.

"Simon Partridge sent me to find you," Mick replied softly.

"You're not the police?"

"No, ma'am. And as horrible as all this is, you'd do well not to get in contact with them. The people who did this, well—they own the police around here, and they have reach in LA and about anywhere else you could go. There's no escaping them, trust me."

"Why should I trust you? I don't really know if you are the good guys or the bad guys. I don't even know what—_what_ you are."

I reached out and took her hand. "We're your best friends right now. We're here to help you, to take you home. If you listen to us, we can keep you safe. Your son is going to need you more than ever now, so you should take this good advice we're giving you." She couldn't help flinching at my vampire cold hand.

She looked down at her son, pulling him even closer. "What about Harrison?" she said, her voice agonized. "What do we tell people?"

"You went on vacation to Chicago," Mick suggested. "Your husband got sick. Maybe had a heart attack. We'll help you make all the arrangements. Then you can go home and try to put your lives back together."

"Oh, my God," she sobbed into her hands. "How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"You will," said Simone. "For your son."

Josef handed her a silk handkerchief, which she took gratefully, wiping at her face, then her son's.

"Mommy," said the little boy, "I want to go home."

"Shhh. We will, baby."

Simone and I led the pair out of the bathroom, thankful that the dim light of the electric lantern didn't reveal to the humans the carnage around us. We went back outside, where the driver opened the limo door. As the Archer's climbed in, Mick stopped me, speaking at vampire level.

"You two get them back to the hotel, help them get packed. I'll meet you at the airport in about an hour. We uh, have to call the local Cleaners and take care of the mess in there, plus make arrangements to get Archer back to LA. Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. How about you?"

"I'm fine. Sorry as hell things turned out like this for them, but this is what I feared the most. Humans in the hands of bad vamps? Don't expect a good outcome."

Josef looked at Simone. "We'll let Mick and Beth escort these two home. I've still got plans for you tonight, my sweet. Willis Tower is calling our names." And he kissed her cheek tenderly, a sensual promise in his eyes. "See you later," he told her "_All_ of you."

Mick kissed me on the lips in farewell, and we agreed to meet at the airport in about an hour. "You did a good job in there," he said before I slid inside the car. "You kept a cool head, even with all that blood. Saved my ass too," he said sheepishly.

I smiled. "Told ya I'd be helpful."

"You were. And I love you for it."

"I love you too," I said, then impulsively hugged him. "See you later. _All of you_," I mocked Josef over Mick's shoulder with a wink. Josef grinned widely at me, but I noted a new respect in his eyes for the small role I'd played in there.

As we pulled away, Simone and I watched sadly as mother and son held each other, tears of quiet despair falling down their cheeks. I felt for them, I really did. I only hoped the little boy would have someone like Mick to watch over him the rest of his life. But what was I thinking? _I _was in the position to pay it forward, to help this young boy as much as Mick had me over the years.

"What's your name?" I asked him softly.

"Michael," he sniffed. I smiled gently, pleased with the irony. Michael was Mick's real name.

"Hello, Michael. I'm Beth. And this is Simone. We're going to take care of you, and get you home tonight. Is that okay?"

He looked up at me, brown eyes wide and scared. He nodded shyly, then buried his face into his mother's chest. She hugged him tightly and mouthed, _thank you._

JOSEF

Back inside, I made a couple of calls. The first was to the Chicago Cleaners, the second was to Lorenzo Aiello. The Cleaners would be there within a half-hour. I found Aiello's number and waited for the bastard to answer.

"Lorenzo, my friend," I began brightly. "I have to say, I'm extremely disappointed in what I found at the vamp nest I walked into."

"And what was that, Josef old pal?"

"Mr. Archer was quite dead, and provided a regular feast for members of your LA family."

There was a pause. "How unfortunate. But they let the other humans go unharmed, didn't they?"

"Yes," I said, "which I appreciate greatly. But that isn't what we agreed to."

"Now, Josef, don't get your nose out of joint. The humans are no longer obligated to pay back their loan, and they were allowed to escape, right? These vamps deserved their pound of flesh. Surely one human is worth at least ten million dollars, don't you think?"

While I tended to agree with that assessment, I knew Mick, Simone and Beth wouldn't quite see things that way. I sighed. "You've made things very…_inconvenient _for me, Lorenzo. But I guess, since I exacted four pounds of flesh from you now, we can call it even. Four vamps from your family are worth at least the cost of a Cleaner's bill, don't you think?"

I could hear Aiello's barely controlled rage through the phone, but he knew who held all the cards here. "Of course, Josef. Always a pleasure doing business with you."

I ignored his anger at his realization of his place in this world. "Thanks for your hospitality here in the Windy City. Please, do visit me in LA sometime. I'd love the chance to beat you at night golf again."

"I look forward to it," he responded, achingly polite.

I flipped shut my phone, meeting Mick's annoyed expression. "Well, that's settled," I told him. "As soon as the Cleaners get here, we'll pay them off and take a cab back to the hotel."

"That's it? You're not gonna do something about him?"

I shrugged. "What's to be done? We could declare war, in which case, lots more people could die, starting with Archer's widow and child. But might I remind you, you can still make Partridge pay. It was his stupidity that got us into this mess in the first place."

Mick pondered this a minute, and I knew his sense of justice was greatly offended, at least where Aiello's people were concerned. Then, he grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"You're right, _old pal_," he said, recalling Aiello's moniker for me. "I'll be making a visit to see my client later. We've got some things to discuss."

"That's my boy," I grinned. But as much as I'd like to be a fly on the wall at that meeting, I had a wife to ravage, and the moon was waning.

A/N: Another chapter or two to go on this one. Thanks for all those who have been reviewing. And please, sign in so I can respond to you personally. I love you guys so much and want to tell you so personally.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has been reading this story. I hope you like it enough to keep posting your wonderful reviews. Oh, this one is a little heavy on the language. Hope you aren't too offended. Oh, and there's a sex scene, but I'm not sure it is totally M-rated. Proceed at your own risk, however. One girl's T is another girl's M, lol.

Chapter 15

MICK

Carolyn Archer and her son Michael lay sleeping on the leather couches in Josef's jet. Beth and I sat in the back of the plane, sipping what hopefully looked like Bloody Mary's, but were actually heavier on the bloody. I looked at Beth in concern. She was looking tired, and I knew she needed to hit the freezer soon. Blood in a glass was easy to explain; no so much the freezer berths, currently hidden behind thick curtains. The long flight was seeming much longer.

"You okay?" I asked, vampire low.

She yawned, then smiled behind her hand, responding in kind. "Sorry. I'm feeling a little run down."

"I think they're asleep," I said, glancing toward the exhausted family. "Do you hear their regular breathing and heartbeats? All you'd have to do is slip behind a curtain and climb in the freezer berth. I'll stay up; I'm used to going longer without sleep than you are."

She slid closer to me, leaning her head on my shoulder. "There are definitely some complicated things about being a vampire. Hiding my blood-drinking from humans, sneaking in some freezer time. But tonight, when I saw you saving the Archers—I knew this is what I was meant to be. If I hadn't had this strength to pull a chair apart with my bare hands, I wouldn't have been able to save you too. I want to be able to help people, Mick, to use my new abilities to be a hero like you have always been for me."

I felt my dead heart swell, touched beyond belief that this amazing woman saw me in this light.

"I'm no hero, Beth. I just try to do the right thing now, to make up for what I was. I've told you I've made mistakes—horrible ones that still haunt me sometimes. I'm glad I'm with you now, to prevent you from going down that same road."

She looked up at me and I looked back, into those blue eyes that had ensnared me from the moment I'd first seen them twenty-five years before. Beth the child had jump-started my heart, had awakened me to a new direction in my life, had given me a purpose. Beth-my lover, my partner, my wife-to-be-had replaced my self-loathing with hope and love, and I would never be the same again.

Her sweet lips beckoned me, so I took what was mine, placing my hands on either smooth cheek, while I made love to her mouth with my lips and tongue. Things began to spiral out of control very quickly, but I put the brakes on before we had sex twenty feet away from a sleeping child.

"Beth," I whispered, as her lips slid from my lips to my jaw, and I felt the tantalizing touch of her fangs scraping near my jugular. "Michael. Sleeping child. Remember?"

"Huh? Oh. Dammit!" She pulled away, closing her eyes and covering her mouth while she fought her natural instinct to vamp out. _Nothing like the sex drive of a new vampire,_ I grinned to myself.

"Go get in the freezer, before we both internally combust," I said wryly.

She took another drink of blood, nodding emphatically. "Yeah. Yeah. You're right." She kissed me one more time, then grinned in mild embarrassment. "Why did I think I'd become stronger as a vampire? On the contrary, St. John, you've made me even _weaker_…for you."

I rolled my eyes at her melodrama, but our light laughter brought us back down to earth. I stood watch as she slipped inside the heavy curtains and quietly opened the freezer door. I would stay up the rest of the flight, watching over our passengers and awakening Beth before the Archer's could see her emerging from a freezer like a…vampire.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The lights of LA began dimming one by one in the early morning, just before the sun began to rise. From my perch atop the nearly constructed apartment building, I could see for miles, and I enjoyed looking far out to sea, watching as the great Pacific began changing from dark blue to light green in the rising light. Beth would have loved it up here. I sighed. Too bad she couldn't share this lovely view with me. I glanced at my companion, who was hanging by his feet from a crane, unconscious, thirty stories up.

The rope that held him creaked as Simon Partridge swayed back and forth in the soft morning breeze. I focused on his heartbeat, heard it begin to pick up. Sleeping Beauty was awakening. I took a last puff of my cigar, then crushed the butt beneath my heel. I was getting impatient for him to come around; I'd forgotten how strongly chloroform can affect some humans.

"Wake up, princess," I called. I heard his soft moan, and watched in anticipation for the moment his eyes opened and he realized where he was. I wasn't disappointed. Partridge realized almost immediately that something was wrong, that he was no longer standing by his car at four a.m., loading suitcases into the trunk for his trip to Australia. I'd seen the one-way ticket on his dashboard. I'd caught him just in time.

"Jesus! Holy shit!" he blasphemed upon seeing the city spread out beneath him. He began struggling, then, realizing that might not be such a good idea, he went still, his brain kicking in to evaluate the dangerous situation he was in. He looked up at his feet, to where they were tightly bound together, then over to the building where I stood. He caught sight of me and let out a strangled cry.

"St. John! Thank God! Can you get me the hell down from here?"

"Well, good morning sunshine," I said mockingly. "You're in a bit of a pickle, aren't you?"

"No shit! Don't just stand there—help me!"

I tsked at his commanding tone, my momentary coldness turning to white hot anger. Normally, torturing a guy like this wasn't my style. In the past, when I wanted to put the fear of God into someone, I just vamped out and scared them with my otherworldly appearance. This time, this asshole was responsible for an innocent man's death, for a son losing his father, a wife losing her husband. He deserved more than just a little scare attributable to imagination later. No, I definitely wanted Partridge to remember this.

"I found out a few things on my little Chicago trip," I began conversationally. "For one, you were dealing with the wrong people, weren't you?"

"Come on, St. John. Get me down and we can have a civilized conversation on solid ground."

"Nuh-uh. You're just perfect where you are. What was I saying? Oh, the _wrong people_. What the hell were you thinking, getting a loan from the mob? And, worse yet, not telling your partner about it. He's dead now, because of you."

"What? Dead? Harry's dead?" His obvious surprise made me finally blow up.

"Yes, you fuckin' son of a bitch! What the hell did you expect? They couldn't get their money, so they got their revenge in blood."

"Oh, God. I never meant for that to happen, I swear. Harry was my best friend." To my horror, the bastard began to cry. "What about Carolyn and Michael? Are they-?"

"No, they're fine, lucky for you, or I wouldn't have messed around with tying you up here. You'd be another unfortunate addition to LaBrea about now. As it is, I don't think the full impact of what you've done has set in yet. I think you need a little more time to contemplate the error of your ways."

"No. Please. I've learned my lesson, believe me. I'm leaving LA, starting over somewhere else. I swear I'll never get involved with people like that again."

"You think they won't find you in Australia?" I said. "You'd better keep moving, keep changing your name. Keep looking over your shoulder the rest of your life, because those people have long memories."

No one would be after him anymore, I knew, but I never wanted him to forget what he'd done. I wanted it to chase him for the rest of his days, even if no one was literally following him.

"And if you ever show up in LA, ever make contact with the Archer's, well, I know people that would make the mob look like playground bullies. And you'd better forget about that ten million dollars. Consider it Michael's trust fund."

"Yeah, you're right. Just get me down and I'm gone, I swear."

The sun was on the rise now, and I fished my sunglasses out of my jacket pocket, shielding my eyes from the morning glare. Time for me to go.

"You know," I ventured pleasantly. "They say hanging upside down is good for you. Helps with back problems. People pay a lot of money for the treatments. I think it's called inversion therapy. Yeah, that's it. Then again, it's probably not too good for the brain and blood circulation. I can sense that your blood is pooling in your brain right now. Will make for some lovely blood clots, I'm sure, unless these ropes don't hold, that is. In that case, I guess you won't have to worry about blood clots for long. Well, I guess I'll be going now. You just relax and enjoy the free treatment."

"What? St. John! Goddammit, cut me down! Don't leave me up here like this!"

"I sincerely hope you suffer every day for the rest of your miserable life, you worthless piece of shit."

I heard him calling to me, trying to bargain with me as I jumped from the skeleton outline of each floor, until I found an empty, half-completed elevator shaft. I leaped all the way down to the bottom floor, landing softly in the dust. I climbed easily over the security fencing surrounding the construction site, just before the first construction workers began pulling into the hardhat area. I wished I could stick around to see their surprise when they found their trespasser at the top of the building. Their expressions would probably be very amusing.

I casually walked across the street to where my convertible was parked, confident that no one had noticed me. If I listened closely enough, I could still hear the distant calls of Simon Partridge, his voice going hoarse with his bootless cries. I grinned. It was going to be a beautiful morning.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Josef's call woke me from my freezer at about two in the afternoon. I could hear Beth moving about my apartment, and the domestic sounds made me smile as I pushed open the lid of the freezer and picked up my phone.

"Good afternoon, Josef. You make it back from Chicago yet?"

"Yes. Just. Simone and I were wondering if the cocktail party was still a go, considering all that's gone on the last couple of days."

"Yeah," I replied. "As far as I know. Eight o'clock. So, how was the rest of your…sightseeing?"

"You really want to know?" I heard the wicked tone of his voice and regretted asking immediately.

"I'm having second thoughts now—"

"Well, in that case, let's just say we reached the pinnacle a few times. We went higher and higher until we literally saw stars. And all that blowing—you wouldn't believe the blowing—"

"Alright, alright," I laughed. "I get the picture. You'll pay for my therapy now, right?"

"Ha. I might actually sell the movie rights, it was so epic. Anyway, has Beth recovered from her first adventure ala vampire?"

"Yes." I paused, contemplating how right things seemed to be. Then I stopped thinking that way, because whenever things started going well, fate invariably stepped in to fuck things up. "I'm really pleased with her progress," I said evenly.

"_Pleased with her progress?_ What are you, her math teacher? Mick, it's alright to be happy. Lighten up, pal."

I grinned. He knew me so well. "You're right, I know. I'm happy. _We're _happy. I'm looking forward to sharing our happiness with the rest of our friends tonight. Happy?"

"Yeah, but that's so sweet I'm coming down with diabetes now. Find the happy medium, Mick. Oh, by the way, did you catch up with that bastard client of yours? You know, I used to adore partridge pie back in the old country."

"I did, actually. Sorry you weren't there to share with me."

"Do tell."

And so I told him what I'd done, what I'd said, how I'd left things. I was rewarded with Josef's appreciative laugh.

"Well done, Mick! You're right; I am sorry I missed that. Of course, you forgot the part where he'd make a final donation to Josef's blood bank."

"You know I couldn't do that—" I protested.

I could almost hear him shrug. "Yeah, yeah. I know how you are. A vampire Boy Scout. I'll never understand you. Still, that's quite an improvement. I do believe you are taking notes from _The Book of Josef_ at last."

"Don't get your hopes up. I draw the line at cold-blooded murder. Well, of humans anyway," I amended, thinking of those vamps we killed back in Chicago.

"I thought you'd give that up, now that you don't have your own little human to protect anymore."

"I'll never stop missing being human, Josef, or having a respect for humanity in general."

"Yeah, more's the pity. I respect them too, Mick. Especially liberally laced with vodka."

I laughed, sitting up and climbing out of the freezer.

"Well, look Josef, I'd love to continue this stimulating conversation, but the shower is calling my name, and a certain new vampire will be soon, I'm sure."

He chuckled at my unintentional innuendo. "I'm sure she will. Those new vamps are insatiable."

"See you tonight, Josef." I hung up and tossed my phone aside, then headed into the shower.

I hadn't been there long before I heard the glass door open, and a familiar naked body pressed to my back.

"That was Josef on the phone, I assume," said Beth near my ear. "I was talking to Simone at the same time."

"Hmmm," I said by way of confirmation. She'd grabbed the soap and had begun lathering my back with slow, caressing movements, her hands slipping lower to cup my ass. I closed my eyes and leaned back into her. I'd dreamed of showering with her, never being able to before when she was human, since she couldn't handle the cold water. That time when she'd taken Black Crystal hadn't counted. The cold water hadn't been designed to comfort her then.

This time it was starting out just like my fantasies had, her hands moving around me to caress the part of me most straining for her, the soap enhancing the sensation until I shuddered against her. Her breasts pressed against my soapy back, slipping and sliding and generally making me pant with lust.

"Oh God, Beth. You're driving me insane." Her grasp on me tightened, and I inhaled sharply.

"That's the idea," she said, smiling against my side. Well, if I was the only one going crazy, that certainly wouldn't do.

I turned in her arms, my erection sliding through her hands as she dropped them in surprise. I pushed her roughly against the shower wall, my hands going up to grab the soap, lathering her up from neck to thighs before lifting her by the waist and plunging inside. The icy water sprayed around us, both moaning in ecstasy at our joining. She wrapped her legs around me, steadying herself as I picked up the pace, my mind going blank as all I could do was feel her, inside and out, pulling me closer with every stroke.

We roared out our release, both vamping out and latching on to each other's necks, drinking each other in while our movements slowed and her feet dropped back to the floor. I licked my bite marks gently and she did the same to me. We leaned against the wall, spent.

"Mick," she whispered. "Can we take this to the bedroom?"

I leaned back in surprise. "You're kidding me?"

She looked up at me, mischievous blue eyes leaving no doubt that she meant it. I grinned. "Can I at least finish my shower first? Jeeze, woman, I haven't even shaved."

"Okay," she said demurely, but I wasn't fooled a bit, especially when she grabbed the soap again, and began washing herself this time. I groaned and set my razor down before I'd even made one pass down my face.

"Aww, fuck it,"I said, flipping off the water and picking Beth up in my arms. "the scruffy look is still in style, isn't it?"

She screeched in excitement as I ran with her to the bedroom.

A/N: Okay, one more chapter to go. Next up: the cocktail party. You never know who might show up…


	16. Chapter 16 Conclusion

A/N: Well, here it is: the Conclusion. I've really appreciated all your reviews. They've really helped me to become a better writer. I hope you enjoy this last chapter.

Chapter 16: Conclusion

BETH

At exactly eight o'clock, I sensed the approach of vampires coming down the hallway from the elevator. I didn't recognize them, and a quiver of fear went down my spine. Mick was busy putting the finishing touches on the makeshift open bar in the kitchen when he looked up toward the apartment door. He turned on some cool jazz and flipped on the fire rocks in the living room.

"Our first guests are here," he smiled.

I felt relieved that he knew who they were. I hadn't been around many good vamps lately.

"Who?" I asked, excited now.

"Go see. You're the hostess as well as the guest of honor."

I glanced in the security monitor by the door, pleased to see it was Carrie and Daryl Morgan. I squealed like a teenager and opened the door for them. Carrie and I immediately embraced, her French-accented thoughts filling my mind with words of happiness and welcome. Daryl and Mick were grinning at our excited reunion. I motioned them both inside, and Daryl handed Mick a bottle of expensive champagne.

_Oh Beth! I am so glad you are doing so well! When Mick told us what had happened…well, you never know how these things can go. But you seem to be adapting even better than I imagined._

"It hasn't been easy, I won't lie. But things are much better now…" I caught Mick's eye and smiled, my simple words gross understatements of the events of the last two weeks.

Suddenly, I was enfolded in the arms of a huge bear—Daryl, the gorgeous vamp with the bodybuilder physique, hugged me, this time not restraining himself so that I got a feel for just how strong this man really was. I laughed and made exaggerated noises of pain. He released me and smiled.

"Welcome to the fold, Beth. Now we don't all have to be driven crazy by this guy here when you're late for dinner, or kidnapped by some bad guy. You'll be able to take care of yourself, now."

"Let's not push it," Mick said. There was humor in his tone, but I knew he would always be a little on the overprotective side where I was concerned.

"Hey," Daryl said, a thought occurring to him. "Does this make you my sister now?" Mick had been Daryl's unwitting sire fifty-five years ago, and while the subject was still a little sensitive, it was good to know that Daryl could joke a little about it now.

"Only if you both call me _Daddy,"_ Mick said slyly.

"Well, that's not gonna happen," Daryl grinned, putting out his paw-like hand to shake Mick's. He cringed a little, knowing what was coming. It was a standard joke to see how long Mick could withstand Daryl's bone crushing handshakes. It wasn't long.

"Who's _your _daddy," joked Daryl, releasing Mick's throbbing hand. He shook it out gingerly.

_Enough! _Carrie chided. _I swear they are both children._

"I know what you mean. You should see Mick and Josef sometimes."

"Can I get you two a drink?"interupted Mick, after kissing Carrie's cheek placatingly.

_Oui. White wine would be lovely._

"And I'd like a scotch rocks," said Daryl. "Can you handle that without my expert assistance?"

Daryl owned a bar that catered mainly to vampire clientele.

"Nah, take the night off, barkeep."

"Well, make sure it's the good stuff, because I'll know," he called, making himself comfortable on Mick's couch. His beautiful, dark-haired wife alighted beside him. She smiled at me, her deep red lips vivid against her white skin and jet black hair.

_When Mick told Daryl you could see…my God, I was so happy for you! Becoming a vampire healed you, just as it healed my muteness._

"Yes, but like you, it changed it too. I see auras around everyone now. It is a little weird sometimes, and hard to get used to. But it's turned out to be a very useful gift."

"How so?" asked Daryl, accepting the scotch Mick placed in his hands. His sniffed it experimentally, then shot Mick a grin to show he was kidding. Mick always had the best scotch on hand, and he knew it.

"Auras can determine a person's mood, or even tell if they are lying. There's a real science to reading them. I've had a doctor helping me…"

"Yeah," said Mick dryly. "He's been really helpful."

"And hot," I mouthed, a hand partially shielding my mouth so Mick couldn't see me.

_Oh, you must tell me more later, _Carrie said in my head, for my brain only. We both grinned as Mick and Daryl rolled their eyes, having figured out what we were likely talking about.

"So, what do _our_ auras tell you?" asked Daryl curiously.

"Hmmm…" I said, focusing on the vivid colors surrounding them. "Carrie, yours is white. Pure. You are like the perfect balance of every emotion. You also have a calming influence on people."

We all nodded at that accurate characterization. "And Daryl…yours is brown, you are down to earth. And you are also blue, like Mick. Dependable, stable, kind. Hmmm…And…you are also keeping something from your wife."

_What?_

Carrie looked at her husband in dismay. _What are you keeping from me, mon amour?_

There was tension in the room, and I suddenly felt awful for being responsible for it. "I'm sorry. None of my business. I'm just like a child with a new toy. Please, let's forget I said anything."

To my surprise, Daryl smiled, then reached into his pocket. "I just picked this up today. It's our sixtieth wedding anniversary next week." He pulled out a small blue box.

"No," I cried. "Save it for your special day. Dammit! I didn't mean to spoil your surprise, Daryl."

Mick laughed. "You need to learn to use your powers for good, Beth."

"That's okay." He opened the box and presented his wife with a huge diamond ring, heart shaped and set in white gold. Carrie's gasp echoed in my mind.

"When we were first married, I couldn't afford a proper engagement ring. Well, now, my love, I can."

_Daryl…_

And there was a spate of French I didn't understand, then a lot of passionate kisses and embraces that lasted so long, Mick and I quietly left the room.

"You think that will be us in sixty years?" I asked, pouring myself a glass of wine in the kitchen.

Mick smiled, his hazel eyes going soft and taking on the color of his slate gray dress shirt. He reached out a hand to caress my cheek. "That's us in two-hundred years…at least." He'd just pressed his lips to mine when there came a knock on the door. More vampires whose scents I didn't recognize.

"That would be Guillermo, Logan, and dates," said Mick, reluctantly pulling away to return to his host duties. I joined him at the door, walking past the lovebirds on the couch, who were self-consciously readjusting clothes and hair. I hadn't seen our other friends since Josef and Simone's wedding, so it was with great warmth that I hugged the two men, and their ladies, Stacy and Caridad.

"So, Beth," said Logan cheerfully, "you're one of us now. I knew it was only a matter of time."

Mick shot him a dirty look, but Logan was oblivious, as usual. "Logan—" he growled.

I laughed. "That's okay. I guess it did seem a foregone conclusion, what with my hanging around all you vampires all the time. Someone was bound to get hungry and take a bite out of the human."

Mick was startled by that statement, but the rest of the guests laughed. I caught Mick's eye and winked, then took his hand and squeezed it in reassurance.

"You're a real asshole sometimes," I heard Guillermo mutter to Logan under his breath.

"What?"said Logan, still clueless.

The next few minutes were spent getting drinks, catching up with small talk that was sprinkled with lots of ribbing and joking.

When our next guest arrived, Mick looked at me in surprise, then extreme annoyance. I was pleased to recognize the familiar scent. Mick opened the door and plastered on a pleasant, though strained expression. "Dr. Fontaine. What a surprise. Please, come in."

"A surprise?" he asked, eyebrow raised, Australian accent suddenly more pronounced. "Didn't Beth tell you she'd invited me?"

"No," replied Mick with a tight smile. "She's always doing the most unpredictable things, my Beth…But of course, you're welcome. The more the merrier. Let me get you a drink."

The professor entered the apartment, movie star handsome in his dark suit and tie. His aura indicated calm, confidence, and blatant sensuality. I had no doubt the man would be good in bed. The other women in the room seemed to think the same thing, as each looked at him with extreme interest even without the ability to see auras.

I made the introductions, singing his praises as he responded humbly, nearly making the women swoon and the men gnash their teeth in irritation. He seemed particularly fascinated with Carrie, having never met anyone—human or vampire—capable of communicating telepathically. I heard him exclaim how he'd love to be able to study her in his Metaphysics lab. Daryl didn't seem too keen on the idea, but it was a true testament to his faith in his wife that he remained silent as she politely refused.

The party was going very well, and everyone was so glad I was a vampire now, but most of all, that I could see again. I didn't talk to the others about auras, after my mistake with Daryl and Carrie, but I noted how their colors really did match what I knew of my friends' personalities. I'd have to take Richard Fontaine aside later to confer.

Of course, despite the evening's success, we were all aware that something was still missing—or _someone. _Naturally, Josef would want to make a grand entrance, fashionably late as usual. And so it was that, nearly an hour into the party, Josef and Simone appeared, both stylish and ready to be the center of attention.

"Beth, the guest of honor! How lovely you look," said Josef, kissing my cheek. "So tell me," he muttered, "does this suit clash with my aura?"  
I laughed. "Silver goes with everything," I said enigmatically.

He raised an eyebrow and grinned. I hugged Simone and invited them in. The couple was instantly surrounded by most of the other guests, and Josef had a witty remark for each of them. He turned to my fiancé, shaking his hand

"Mick, my man. Nice party. Where's the scotch?"

"Good to see you too, Josef. Right this way." But Josef had honed in on Dr. Fontaine's scent, distracted by the man who stood across the living room, chatting animatedly with Carrie. It took a lot to distract Josef from good liquor.

"Does that guy have a second death wish?" Josef smirked, noting Carrie's mountain of a husband and the dangerous furrow of his brow.

"He's very interested in her telepathic abilities," I said in Richard's defense.

"I don't believe those particular abilities lie in her cleavage," he retorted. And there was no way of stopping Josef from sauntering over to where the professor stood. He kissed Carrie hello and turned to Richard with the intensity of a new business challenge.

"Dick," Josef said, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"It's _Richard,_" he corrected, his mouth quirking in amusement. He didn't seem offended by Josef's obvious attempt to unnerve him. In fact, his aura of confidence didn't waver a bit in the presence of the older, more powerful vampire.

"Good to see you as always, Josef."

"Yes, it is," Josef agreed.

They shook hands, and it was like two alpha males sizing each other up. I guess Josef wanted to make very clear who the don of this family was. Richard didn't seem to care; he was somehow above these playground antics.

The company talked, bantered and drank the rest of the evening, and at around eleven, Mick uncorked the champagne Daryl had contributed. He brought out a tray of flute glasses and everyone took one and waited for their host to take the floor.

"I'd like to propose a toast," Mick began, holding his glass, his gaze passing happily over the faces of our friends. "To Beth, my future wife, and, I'm happy to say, my lifelong companion. She has given me a true reason for living, and a new appreciation for what I am. To Beth!"

"To Beth!" everyone echoed. I took a drink of the champagne, then tiptoed up to kiss Mick on the lips.

"Thank you," I whispered. "I love you so much."

"I love you," he said, his eyes glowing in that special way I only saw when he looked at me.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The party lasted long after midnight, spurred on when Mick brought out his guitar, and we had an old-fashioned sing-along. But, then again, everyone at the party was old-fashioned besides Simone and me.

Later, after bidding farewell to our friends, Mick and I snuggled on the couch, empty glasses covering the tables around us, as we enjoyed the quiet and our time alone.

"Well, that was really fun. We should seriously do this more often. Maybe make it a monthly thing."

He kissed my temple and his finger made lazy circles on the bare arm revealed by my sleeveless dress.

"I like that idea," he said.

We were quiet a few minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. "When I was blind," I began, and felt him tense at my random opener. "I felt hopeless, frightened that my vision would never return. But even when I got it back, it was like I was still blind, you know what I mean?"

"I remember," he said, and I felt his small smile against my hair, as he relaxed into our shared reverie.

"And now…I see more than I ever could before my accident, and I'm not just talking about auras."

"What do you see now, sweetheart?" he asked languidly. I pulled back to look at this man, this vampire, who with one decision, had both killed me and saved my life.

"I see…forever, Mick. A forever with you."

My vision suddenly blurred, and Mick wiped away my tears with the back of his hand.

"That's all I ever wanted," he said. And then he kissed me.

THE END

A/N: This was a tough story to write, but I thank you all for motivating me to continue. I hope this ending is satisfying, for now. I'll be taking a break from "Moonlight" for awhile, but I hope you will follow me to "The Mentalist." I'm excited about my work there, and am happy to have found a whole new audience. You guys are the best though, and I'll be back someday soon, I promise. Thanks so much for reading!


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